[Numpy-tickets] [NumPy] #650: fromfile and fromstring differ in parsing ascii integer strings

[NumPy]

#650: fromfile and fromstring differ in parsing ascii integer strings
------------------------+---------------------------------------------------
 Reporter:  efiring     |       Owner:  somebody
     Type:  defect      |      Status:  new     
 Priority:  normal      |   Milestone:  1.0.5   
Component:  numpy.core  |     Version:  none    
 Severity:  normal      |    Keywords:          
------------------------+---------------------------------------------------
 When parsing ascii with an integer dtype specified, fromfile uses fscanf
 with a format string that assumes base-10, while fromstring uses
 PyOS_strtol with its third parameter, base, set to 0.  This causes auto-
 detection of the base, allowing hex and octal to be recognized
 automatically.  The disadvantages are that this can cause the same string
 to be parsed differently by fromfile and fromstring, and that in common
 cases, such as parsing a date or time string, the leading 0 triggers
 unwanted interpretation of a number as octal (which can fail outright)
 when it is actually base-10.

 {{{
 In [2]:numpy.fromstring("12:09:09", dtype=int, sep=':')
 Out[2]:array([12,  0])
 }}}

 Changing the base argument to PyOS_strtol from 0 to 10 in
 arraytypes.inc.src would change the behavior of fromstring to match that
 of fromfile and eliminate the surprising behavior illustrated above.

 This has been discussed in the thread
 [http://thread.gmane.org/gmane.comp.python.numeric.general/18630]

-- 
Ticket URL: <http://scipy.org/scipy/numpy/ticket/650>
NumPy <http://projects.scipy.org/scipy/numpy>
The fundamental package needed for scientific computing with Python.