[NumPy-Tickets] [NumPy] #1814: dtype field names cannot be unicode

[NumPy Trac]

#1814: dtype field names cannot be unicode
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 Reporter:  Jon Olav Vik               |       Owner:  somebody   
     Type:  enhancement                |      Status:  new        
 Priority:  normal                     |   Milestone:  Unscheduled
Component:  numpy.core                 |     Version:  1.5.1      
 Keywords:  unicode record field name  |  
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 Is there a reason why Unicode strings are not accepted as field names for
 record arrays?
 {{{
 >>> np.dtype([("a", int)])
 dtype([('a', '<i4')])
 >>> np.dtype([(u"a", int)])
 TypeError: data type not understood
 }}}
 A workaround is .encode("ascii").
 {{{
 >>> np.dtype([(u"a".encode("ascii"), int)])
 dtype([('a', '<i4')])
 }}}
 It is okay for the type specification to be Unicode.
 {{{
 >>> np.dtype([("a", u"S2")])
 dtype([('a', '|S2')])}}}
 }}}

 I came across this while building a record array from data in a Microsoft
 Excel spreadsheet using pythoncom and win32com. Converting to ascii isn't
 too much of a hassle, but maybe it wouldn't be difficult to allow Unicode
 strings as field names?

-- 
Ticket URL: <http://projects.scipy.org/numpy/ticket/1814>
NumPy <http://projects.scipy.org/numpy>
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