time.strptime() fails with unicode date string, de_DE locale

[meonkeys]

BPO	1280061
Nosy	@brettcannon
Files	bug.txt: shows time.strptime() failure with a unicode German date string de_strptime_fail_simple.py: simpler, more precise demonstration of time.strptime() failure with a unicode German date string

^{Note: these values reflect the state of the issue at the time it was migrated and might not reflect the current state.}

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GitHub fields:

assignee = 'https://github.com/brettcannon'
closed_at = <Date 2005-09-06.18:04:24.000>
created_at = <Date 2005-09-01.20:06:03.000>
labels = ['library']
title = 'time.strptime() fails with unicode date string, de_DE locale'
updated_at = <Date 2005-09-06.18:04:24.000>
user = 'https://bugs.python.org/meonkeys'

bugs.python.org fields:

activity = <Date 2005-09-06.18:04:24.000>
actor = 'meonkeys'
assignee = 'brett.cannon'
closed = True
closed_date = None
closer = None
components = ['Library (Lib)']
creation = <Date 2005-09-01.20:06:03.000>
creator = 'meonkeys'
dependencies = []
files = ['1766', '1767']
hgrepos = []
issue_num = 1280061
keywords = []
message_count = 6.0
messages = ['26177', '26178', '26179', '26180', '26181', '26182']
nosy_count = 2.0
nosy_names = ['brett.cannon', 'meonkeys']
pr_nums = []
priority = 'normal'
resolution = 'wont fix'
stage = None
status = 'closed'
superseder = None
type = None
url = 'https://bugs.python.org/issue1280061'
versions = ['Python 2.4']

[meonkeys]

Trying to parse a German date string fails in Python
2.4.1. Test case attached.

Since there's no indenting, I suppose the test case can
also be pasted here:

import locale, time
locale.setlocale(locale.LC_TIME, 'de_DE')
date = u'10. September 2005 um 17:26'
format = '%d. %B %Y um %H:%M'
time.strptime(date, format)

--
Adam Monsen
http://adammonsen.com/

[meonkeys]

Logged In: YES
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Here's a simpler, more precise test case (also attached):

import locale, time
locale.setlocale(locale.LC_TIME, 'de_DE')
date = u'September'; format = '%B'
time.strptime(date, format)

Here's the error I see:

Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "de_strptime_fail_simple.py", line 4, in ?
    time.strptime(date, format)
  File "/usr/lib/python2.4/_strptime.py", line 329, in strptime
    month = locale_time.f_month.index(found_dict['B'].lower())
UnicodeDecodeError: 'ascii' codec can't decode byte 0xe4 in
position 1: ordinal not in range(128)

[brettcannon]

Logged In: YES
user_id=357491

Can you let me know what time.strftime() outputs for your
test case, specifically what type of basestring (str or
unicode)?

[meonkeys]

Logged In: YES
user_id=259388

I get a str from time.strftime().

>>> import time
>>> time.strftime('%B')
'September'
>>> time.strftime('%B').__class__
<type 'str'>

[brettcannon]

Logged In: YES
user_id=357491

OK, then that settles it. If time.strftime() ever returned
unicode, I would say this needs fixing. But since
time.strptime() is meant to be the mirror opposite of
time.strftime(), I am going to close this as "Won't Fix".
If time.strftime() ever gets changed to return unicode, then
I will fix it.

[meonkeys]

Logged In: YES
user_id=259388

Ok, sounds good.

For anyone trying to work around this, unicode date strings
should be encoded to simple Python strings (type of str)
before passing into strptime. Here's an updated version of
the aforementioned test case demonstrating an acceptable
workaround:

import locale, time
locale.setlocale(locale.LC_TIME, 'de_DE')
date = u'September'.encode()
format = '%B'
time.strptime(date, format)

--
Adam Monsen <adamm@wazamatta.com>
http://adammonsen.com/