[Python-Dev] str with base

Tue Jan 17 09:21:59 CET 2006

Alex Martelli wrote:
> Is it finally time in Python 2.5 to allow the "obvious" use of, say, 
> str(5,2) to give '101', just the converse of the way int('101',1) 
> gives 5? I'm not sure why str has never allowed this obvious use -- 
> any bright beginner assumes it's there and it's awkward to explain 
> why it's not!-). 

My main concern is what the impact on __str__ would be. It seems
"obvious" that
 def str(obj, *args):
 return obj.__str__(*args)
because it is ultimately int's responsibility to interpret the base
argument, not str's.
People would then come up with use cases like
 class Color:
 msg = {'en':['red', 'green', 'blue'], 'de':['rot','grün','blau']}
 def __str__(self, language='en'):
 return self.msg[language][self.value]
 red = Color(0)
so you could say
 print str(red, 'de')
I don't think I like this direction.
Regards,
Martin