HISTORY:
In using python 2.7.2 for awhile on a web project (apache/wsgi web.py), I
discovered a problem in using decimal.Decimal. A short search revealed that
many other people have been having the problem as well, in their own
apache/wsgi implementations (django, mostly), but I found no real solutions
among the posts I read. So I did some experimentation of my own.
The following code will break unexpectedly on standard python2.7 (and earlier)
because of the way that isinstance fails after reload() (which is called by
both of the above web frameworks).
This is the error: TypeError("Cannot convert %r to Decimal" % value)
THE TEST CODE
import decimal
from decimal import Decimal
#this works
Decimal(Decimal())
reload(decimal)
#this fails before patching, but works fine afterwards
Decimal(Decimal())
THE SOLUTION:
So, looking into decimal.py I discovered lots if statements using isinstance,
and have slightly rearranged the code inside __new__() to mostly remove their
use, and for my purposes totally fixes the problem within wsgi.
I am not an official python dev, so would appreciate it if someone who *IS*
could just look this over, improve it if necessary, and get it (or some
variation) submitted into the library.
Below is a patch for use against python-2.7.2
PATCH:
*** decimal.py 2012-03-02 16:42:51.285964007 -0600
--- /usr/lib/python2.7/decimal.py 2012-03-02 14:36:01.238976461 -0600
***
*** 535,608
# and the Decimal constructor still deal with tuples of
# digits.
self = object.__new__(cls)
! # From a string
! # REs insist on real strings, so we can too.
! if isinstance(value, basestring):
! m = _parser(value.strip())
! if m is None:
! if context is None:
! context = getcontext()
! return context._raise_error(ConversionSyntax,
! "Invalid literal for Decimal: %r" % value)
!
! if m.group('sign') == "-":
! self._sign = 1
! else:
! self._sign = 0
! intpart = m.group('int')
! if intpart is not None:
! # finite number
! fracpart = m.group('frac') or ''
! exp = int(m.group('exp') or '0')
! self._int = str(int(intpart+fracpart))
! self._exp = exp - len(fracpart)
! self._is_special = False
! else:
! diag = m.group('diag')
! if diag is not None:
! # NaN
! self._int = str(int(diag or '0')).lstrip('0')
! if m.group('signal'):
! self._exp = 'N'
! else:
! self._exp = 'n'
! else:
! # infinity
! self._int = '0'
! self._exp = 'F'
! self._is_special = True
! return self
!
! # From an integer
! if isinstance(value, (int,long)):
! if value >= 0:
! self._sign = 0
! else:
! self._sign = 1
! self._exp = 0
! self._int = str(abs(value))
! self._is_special = False
return self
! # From another decimal
! if isinstance(value, Decimal):
self._exp = value._exp
self._sign = value._sign
self._int = value._int
self._is_special = value._is_special
return self
# From an internal working value
! if isinstance(value, _WorkRep):
self._sign = value.sign
self._int = str(value.int)
self._exp = int(value.exp)
self._is_special = False
return self
# tuple/list conversion (possibly from as_tuple())
if isinstance(value, (list,tuple)):
if len(value) != 3:
raise ValueError('Invalid tuple size in creation of Decimal '
--- 535,582
# and the Decimal constructor still deal with tuples of
# digits.
self = object.__new__(cls)
! # Note about isinstance -- Decimal has been a victim of the
! # isinstance builtin failing after module reload in some
! # environments (e.g. web.py, django) under apache/wsgi, which
! # I determined to be the reason Decimal was causing so many
! # problems in my web deployment. I have re-organized the
! # following code to remove use of isinstance except on
! # native types (int, long, float, list, tuple), since those
! # seem not to break in this regard. -- jdb
!
! # First, assume it's another Decimal or similar(having _exp,
! # _sign, _int and _is_special. Obviously, having these
! #
