[Python-ideas] NAN handling in the statistics module

[Steven D'Aprano]

On Mon, Jan 07, 2019 at 07:35:45PM +0000, MRAB wrote:

> Could the functions optionally accept a callback that will be called 
> when a NaN is first seen?
> 
> If the callback returns False, NaNs are suppressed, otherwise they are 
> retained and the function returns NaN (or whatever).

That's an interesting API which I shall have to think about.

> The callback would give the user a chance to raise a warning or an 
> exception, if desired.

One practical annoyance of this API is that you cannot include raise 
from a lambda, so people desiring "fail fast" semantics can't do this:

result = mean(data, callback=lambda: raise Exception)

They have to pre-declare the callback using def.



-- 
Steve