Error messages from format()

[Colin J. Williams]

Is there some way to get more informative error messages from the
builtin format?

Most messages are such as:
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "<interactive input>", line 1, in <module>
ValueError: Invalid conversion specification

This example doesn't point to the first invalid case.

[Dbg]>>> format((25, 31),'{0^9o} a(1:9x}')
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "<interactive input>", line 1, in <module>
ValueError: Invalid conversion specification

Basically, I'm trying to make use of the format function with Python
3.2, but find little in the way of examples in the docs.

Colin W.

[Steven D'Aprano]

On Tue, 13 Nov 2012 10:08:59 -0500, Colin J. Williams wrote:

> Is there some way to get more informative error messages from the
> builtin format?

Yes -- post a feature request on the Python bug tracker, then wait until
Python 3.4 comes out in about 16 months.

:(

> Most messages are such as:
> Traceback (most recent call last):
> File "<interactive input>", line 1, in <module>
> ValueError: Invalid conversion specification
>
> This example doesn't point to the first invalid case.

Better error messages would be valuable.

> [Dbg]>>> format((25, 31),'{0^9o} a(1:9x}')
> Traceback (most recent call last):
> File "<interactive input>", line 1, in <module>
> ValueError: Invalid conversion specification

I see at least three problems.

(1) The first brace substitution is missing the colon between the
argument selector "0" and the format spec "^9o": should be "{0:^9o}".

(2) The second format string has an opening round bracket instead of
brace: (1:9x}

(3) But you are confusing the str.format method with the format function.
The format function doesn't take brace substitutions!

The string format method takes a template including brace substitutions,
plus multiple "objects to be substituted", like this:

py> '{0:^9o} a{1:9x}'.format(25, 31)
' 31 a 1f'

In this case, the template '{0:^9o} a{1:9x}' requires two arguments since
it has two substitutions, {0} and {1}. Each substitution has a format
spec following the colon: {0:^9o} and {1:9x}

But the format function only takes a single "object to be substituted",
and so doesn't take a brace substitution. Instead, it just takes the
format spec part:


py> format(25, '^9o')
' 31 '
py> format(31, '^9o')
' 37 '

format will not split a tuple into multiple arguments for you, since the
tuple is considered a single object.



--
Steven

[Colin J. Williams]

On 13/11/2012 1:38 PM, Steven D'Aprano wrote:
> On Tue, 13 Nov 2012 10:08:59 -0500, Colin J. Williams wrote:
>
>> Is there some way to get more informative error messages from the
>> builtin format?
>
> Yes -- post a feature request on the Python bug tracker, then wait until
> Python 3.4 comes out in about 16 months.
>
> :(
>

Many thanks :)

I am working on the assumption that the first argument of the format
builtin function and be a sequence of values, which can be selected
with {1:}, {2:}, {0:} etc.

The docs don't make this clear. I would appreciate advice.

Colin W.
> [snip]

[Dave Angel]

On 11/13/2012 03:24 PM, Colin J. Williams wrote:
> <SNIP>

>
> I am working on the assumption that the first argument of the format
> builtin function and be a sequence of values, which can be selected
> with {1:}, {2:}, {0:} etc.
>
> The docs don't make this clear. I would appreciate advice.
>

The built-in function format():

http://docs.python.org/3.3/library/functions.html?highlight=format%20builtin#format

The first parameter is a single object, NOT a sequence. One object, one
format. If you want more generality, use the str.format() method:

http://docs.python.org/3.3/library/stdtypes.html?highlight=format#str.format

where you can supply a list or a dictionary of multiple items to be
formatted into a single string. That's the one where you supply the
curly braces.


--

DaveA

[Steven D'Aprano]

On Tue, 13 Nov 2012 15:24:53 -0500, Colin J. Williams wrote:

> On 13/11/2012 1:38 PM, Steven D'Aprano wrote:
>> On Tue, 13 Nov 2012 10:08:59 -0500, Colin J. Williams wrote:
>>
>>> Is there some way to get more informative error messages from the
>>> builtin format?
>>
>> Yes -- post a feature request on the Python bug tracker, then wait
>> until Python 3.4 comes out in about 16 months.
>>
>> :(
>>
> Many thanks :)
>
> I am working on the assumption that the first argument of the format
> builtin function and be a sequence of values, which can be selected with
> {1:}, {2:}, {0:} etc.

Um, did you read the rest of my post? I already told you that this is
incorrect.



--
Steven