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Python Enhancement Proposals

PEP 3141 – A Type Hierarchy for Numbers

Author:
Jeffrey Yasskin <jyasskin at google.com>
Status:
Final
Type:
Standards Track
Created:
23-Apr-2007
Python-Version:
3.0
Post-History:
25-Apr-2007, 16-May-2007, 02-Aug-2007

Table of Contents

Abstract

This proposal defines a hierarchy of Abstract Base Classes (ABCs) (PEP 3119) to represent number-like classes. It proposes a hierarchy of Number :> Complex :> Real :> Rational :> Integral where A :> B means “A is a supertype of B”. The hierarchy is inspired by Scheme’s numeric tower [2].

Rationale

Functions that take numbers as arguments should be able to determine the properties of those numbers, and if and when overloading based on types is added to the language, should be overloadable based on the types of the arguments. For example, slicing requires its arguments to be Integrals, and the functions in the math module require their arguments to be Real.

Specification

This PEP specifies a set of Abstract Base Classes, and suggests a general strategy for implementing some of the methods. It uses terminology from PEP 3119, but the hierarchy is intended to be meaningful for any systematic method of defining sets of classes.

The type checks in the standard library should use these classes instead of the concrete built-ins.

Numeric Classes

We begin with a Number class to make it easy for people to be fuzzy about what kind of number they expect. This class only helps with overloading; it doesn’t provide any operations.

class Number(metaclass=ABCMeta): pass

Most implementations of complex numbers will be hashable, but if you need to rely on that, you’ll have to check it explicitly: mutable numbers are supported by this hierarchy.

class Complex(Number):
    """Complex defines the operations that work on the builtin complex type.

    In short, those are: conversion to complex, bool(), .real, .imag,
    +, -, *, /, **, abs(), .conjugate(), ==, and !=.

    If it is given heterogeneous arguments, and doesn't have special
    knowledge about them, it should fall back to the builtin complex
    type as described below.
    """

    @abstractmethod
    def __complex__(self):
        """Return a builtin complex instance."""

    def __bool__(self):
        """True if self != 0."""
        return self != 0

    @abstractproperty
    def real(self):
        """Retrieve the real component of this number.

        This should subclass Real.
        """
        raise NotImplementedError

    @abstractproperty
    def imag(self):
        """Retrieve the imaginary component of this number.

        This should subclass Real.
        """
        raise NotImplementedError

    @abstractmethod
    def __add__(self, other):
        raise NotImplementedError

    @abstractmethod
    def __radd__(self, other):
        raise NotImplementedError

    @abstractmethod
    def __neg__(self):
        raise NotImplementedError

    def __pos__(self):
        """Coerces self to whatever class defines the method."""
        raise NotImplementedError

    def __sub__(self, other):
        return self + -other

    def __rsub__(self, other):
        return -self + other

    @abstractmethod
    def __mul__(self, other):
        raise NotImplementedError

    @abstractmethod
    def __rmul__(self, other):
        raise NotImplementedError

    @abstractmethod
    def __div__(self, other):
        """a/b; should promote to float or complex when necessary."""
        raise NotImplementedError

    @abstractmethod
    def __rdiv__(self, other):
        raise NotImplementedError

    @abstractmethod
    def __pow__(self, exponent):
        """a**b; should promote to float or complex when necessary."""
        raise NotImplementedError

    @abstractmethod
    def __rpow__(self, base):
        raise NotImplementedError

    @abstractmethod
    def __abs__(self):
        """Returns the Real distance from 0."""
        raise NotImplementedError

    @abstractmethod
    def conjugate(self):
        """(x+y*i).conjugate() returns (x-y*i)."""
        raise NotImplementedError

    @abstractmethod
    def __eq__(self, other):
        raise NotImplementedError

    # __ne__ is inherited from object and negates whatever __eq__ does.

The Real ABC indicates that the value is on the real line, and supports the operations of the float builtin. Real numbers are totally ordered except for NaNs (which this PEP basically ignores).

class Real(Complex):
    """To Complex, Real adds the operations that work on real numbers.

    In short, those are: conversion to float, trunc(), math.floor(),
    math.ceil(), round(), divmod(), //, %, <, <=, >, and >=.

    Real also provides defaults for some of the derived operations.
    """

    # XXX What to do about the __int__ implementation that's
    # currently present on float?  Get rid of it?

    @abstractmethod
    def __float__(self):
        """Any Real can be converted to a native float object."""
        raise NotImplementedError

    @abstractmethod
    def __trunc__(self):
        """Truncates self to an Integral.

        Returns an Integral i such that:
          * i>=0 iff self>0;
          * abs(i) <= abs(self);
          * for any Integral j satisfying the first two conditions,
            abs(i) >= abs(j) [i.e. i has "maximal" abs among those].
        i.e. "truncate towards 0".
        """
        raise NotImplementedError

    @abstractmethod
    def __floor__(self):
        """Finds the greatest Integral <= self."""
        raise NotImplementedError

    @abstractmethod
    def __ceil__(self):
        """Finds the least Integral >= self."""
        raise NotImplementedError

    @abstractmethod
    def __round__(self, ndigits:Integral=None):
        """Rounds self to ndigits decimal places, defaulting to 0.

        If ndigits is omitted or None, returns an Integral,
        otherwise returns a Real, preferably of the same type as
        self. Types may choose which direction to round half. For
        example, float rounds half toward even.

        """
        raise NotImplementedError

    def __divmod__(self, other):
        """The pair (self // other, self % other).

        Sometimes this can be computed faster than the pair of
        operations.
        """
        return (self // other, self % other)

    def __rdivmod__(self, other):
        """The pair (self // other, self % other).

        Sometimes this can be computed faster than the pair of
        operations.
        """
        return (other // self, other % self)

    @abstractmethod
    def __floordiv__(self, other):
        """The floor() of self/other. Integral."""
        raise NotImplementedError

    @abstractmethod
    def __rfloordiv__(self, other):
        """The floor() of other/self."""
        raise NotImplementedError

    @abstractmethod
    def __mod__(self, other):
        """self % other

        See
        https://mail.python.org/pipermail/python-3000/2006-May/001735.html
        and consider using "self/other - trunc(self/other)"
        instead if you're worried about round-off errors.
        """
        raise NotImplementedError

    @abstractmethod
    def __rmod__(self, other):
        """other % self"""
        raise NotImplementedError

    @abstractmethod
    def __lt__(self, other):
        """< on Reals defines a total ordering, except perhaps for NaN."""
        raise NotImplementedError

    @abstractmethod
    def __le__(self, other):
        raise NotImplementedError

    # __gt__ and __ge__ are automatically done by reversing the arguments.
    # (But __le__ is not computed as the opposite of __gt__!)

    # Concrete implementations of Complex abstract methods.
    # Subclasses may override these, but don't have to.

    def __complex__(self):
        return complex(float(self))

    @property
    def real(self):
        return +self

    @property
    def imag(self):
        return 0

    def conjugate(self):
        """Conjugate is a no-op for Reals."""
        return +self

We should clean up Demo/classes/Rat.py and promote it into rational.py in the standard library. Then it will implement the Rational ABC.

class Rational(Real, Exact):
    """.numerator and .denominator should be in lowest terms."""

    @abstractproperty
    def numerator(self):
        raise NotImplementedError

    @abstractproperty
    def denominator(self):
        raise NotImplementedError

    # Concrete implementation of Real's conversion to float.
    # (This invokes Integer.__div__().)

    def __float__(self):
        return self.numerator / self.denominator

And finally integers:

class Integral(Rational):
    """Integral adds a conversion to int and the bit-string operations."""

    @abstractmethod
    def __int__(self):
        raise NotImplementedError

    def __index__(self):
        """__index__() exists because float has __int__()."""
        return int(self)

    def __lshift__(self, other):
        return int(self) << int(other)

    def __rlshift__(self, other):
        return int(other) << int(self)

    def __rshift__(self, other):
        return int(self) >> int(other)

    def __rrshift__(self, other):
        return int(other) >> int(self)

    def __and__(self, other):
        return int(self) & int(other)

    def __rand__(self, other):
        return int(other) &