[Numpy-discussion] Unexpected attribute error

[Robert Kern]

On Tue, Nov 17, 2009 at 20:48, James Bergstra <bergstrj@iro.umontreal.ca> wrote:
> Is it by design that  "numpy.sqrt(None)" raises an "AttributeError: sqrt"?

Yes. numpy.sqrt() is a ufunc. Ufuncs take their arguments and try to
convert them to numpy arrays; the manual equivalent is
numpy.asarray(None). In this case, you get a rank-0 array with
dtype=object. The way unary ufuncs work on object arrays is to call
the method of the same name on the object. None.sqrt doesn't exist, so
the AttributeError gets raised.

> This was confusing because there was an attribute lookup of 'sqrt' in
> numpy right there in the expression I typed, but that was not the
> attribute that python was complaining about.  I presume that numpy.sqrt
> didn't know what to do with None, so it looked up a .sqrt in it or
> something... but I presume this only in hindsight now that I figured
> out the problem--I didn't mean to take the sqrt of None in the first place.
>
> How about adding some information to the AttributeError, such
> as the object on which the lookup failed (here None, as opposed to the
> numpy module).

Patches welcome.

-- 
Robert Kern

"I have come to believe that the whole world is an enigma, a harmless
enigma that is made terrible by our own mad attempt to interpret it as
though it had an underlying truth."
  -- Umberto Eco