.. _overview: Overview: Easy, clean, reliable Python 2/3 compatibility ======================================================== ``python-future`` is the missing compatibility layer between Python 2 and Python 3. It allows you to use a single, clean Python 3.x-compatible codebase to support both Python 2 and Python 3 with minimal overhead. It provides ``future`` and ``past`` packages with backports and forward ports of features from Python 3 and 2. It also comes with ``futurize`` and ``pasteurize``, customized 2to3-based scripts that helps you to convert either Py2 or Py3 code easily to support both Python 2 and 3 in a single clean Py3-style codebase, module by module. Notable projects that use ``python-future`` for Python 2/3 compatibility are `Mezzanine <http://mezzanine.jupo.org/>`_ and `ObsPy <http://obspy.org>`_. .. _features: Features -------- .. image:: https://travis-ci.org/PythonCharmers/python-future.svg?branch=master :target: https://travis-ci.org/PythonCharmers/python-future - ``future.builtins`` package (also available as ``builtins`` on Py2) provides backports and remappings for 20 builtins with different semantics on Py3 versus Py2 - support for directly importing 30 standard library modules under their Python 3 names on Py2 - support for importing the other 14 refactored standard library modules under their Py3 names relatively cleanly via ``future.standard_library`` and ``future.moves`` - ``past.builtins`` package provides forward-ports of 19 Python 2 types and builtin functions. These can aid with per-module code migrations. - ``past.translation`` package supports transparent translation of Python 2 modules to Python 3 upon import. [This feature is currently in alpha.] - 1000+ unit tests, including many from the Py3.3 source tree. - ``futurize`` and ``pasteurize`` scripts based on ``2to3`` and parts of ``3to2`` and ``python-modernize``, for automatic conversion from either Py2 or Py3 to a clean single-source codebase compatible with Python 2.6+ and Python 3.3+. - a curated set of utility functions and decorators in ``future.utils`` and ``past.utils`` selected from Py2/3 compatibility interfaces from projects like ``six``, ``IPython``, ``Jinja2``, ``Django``, and ``Pandas``. - support for the ``surrogateescape`` error handler when encoding and decoding the backported ``str`` and ``bytes`` objects. [This feature is currently in alpha.] .. _code-examples: Code examples ------------- Replacements for Py2's built-in functions and types are designed to be imported at the top of each Python module together with Python's built-in ``__future__`` statements. For example, this code behaves identically on Python 2.6/2.7 after these imports as it does on Python 3.3+: .. code-block:: python from __future__ import absolute_import, division, print_function from builtins import (bytes, str, open, super, range, zip, round, input, int, pow, object) # Backported Py3 bytes object b = bytes(b'ABCD') assert list(b) == [65, 66, 67, 68] assert repr(b) == "b'ABCD'" # These raise TypeErrors: # b + u'EFGH' # bytes(b',').join([u'Fred', u'Bill']) # Backported Py3 str object s = str(u'ABCD') assert s != bytes(b'ABCD') assert isinstance(s.encode('utf-8'), bytes) assert isinstance(b.decode('utf-8'), str) assert repr(s) == "'ABCD'" # consistent repr with Py3 (no u prefix) # These raise TypeErrors: # bytes(b'B') in s # s.find(bytes(b'A')) # Extra arguments for the open() function f = open('japanese.txt', encoding='utf-8', errors='replace') # New zero-argument super() function: class VerboseList(list): def append(self, item): print('Adding an item') super().append(item) # New iterable range object with slicing support for i in range(10**15)[:10]: pass # Other iterators: map, zip, filter my_iter = zip(range(3), ['a', 'b', 'c']) assert my_iter != list(my_iter) # The round() function behaves as it does in Python 3, using # "Banker's Rounding" to the nearest even last digit: assert round(0.1250, 2) == 0.12 # input() replaces Py2's raw_input() (with no eval()): name = input('What is your name? ') print('Hello ' + name) # pow() supports fractional exponents of negative numbers like in Py3: z = pow(-1, 0.5) # Compatible output from isinstance() across Py2/3: assert isinstance(2**64, int) # long integers assert isinstance(u'blah', str) assert isinstance('blah', str) # only if unicode_literals is in effect # Py3-style iterators written as new-style classes (subclasses of # future.types.newobject) are automatically backward compatible with Py2: class Upper(object): def __init__(self, iterable): self._iter = iter(iterable) def __next__(self): # note the Py3 interface return next(self._iter).upper() def __iter__(self): return self assert list(Upper('hello')) == list('HELLO') There is also support for renamed standard library modules. The recommended interface works like this: .. code-block:: python # Many Py3 module names are supported directly on both Py2.x and 3.x: from http.client import HttpConnection import html.parser import queue import xmlrpc.client # Refactored modules with clashing names on Py2 and Py3 are supported # as follows: from future import standard_library standard_library.install_aliases() # Then, for example: from itertools import filterfalse, zip_longest from urllib.request import urlopen from collections import ChainMap from collections import UserDict, UserList, UserString from subprocess import getoutput, getstatusoutput from collections import Counter, OrderedDict # backported to Py2.6 Automatic conversion to Py2/3-compatible code --------------------------------------------- ``python-future`` comes with two scripts called ``futurize`` and ``pasteurize`` to aid in making Python 2 code or Python 3 code compatible with both platforms (Py2/3). It is based on 2to3 and uses fixers from ``lib2to3``, ``lib3to2``, and ``python-modernize``, as well as custom fixers. ``futurize`` passes Python 2 code through all the appropriate fixers to turn it into valid Python 3 code, and then adds ``__future__`` and ``future`` package imports so that it also runs under Python 2. For conversions from Python 3 code to Py2/3, use the ``pasteurize`` script instead. This converts Py3-only constructs (e.g. new metaclass syntax) to Py2/3 compatible constructs and adds ``__future__`` and ``future`` imports to the top of each module. In both cases, the result should be relatively clean Py3-style code that runs mostly unchanged on both Python 2 and Python 3. Futurize: 2 to both ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ For example, running ``futurize -w mymodule.py`` turns this Python 2 code: .. code-block:: python import Queue from urllib2 import urlopen def greet(name): print 'Hello', print name print "What's your name?", name = raw_input() greet(name) into this code which runs on both Py2 and Py3: .. code-block:: python from __future__ import print_function from future import standard_library standard_library.install_aliases() from builtins import input import queue from urllib.request import urlopen def greet(name): print('Hello', end=' ') print(name) print("What's your name?", end=' ') name = input() greet(name) See :ref:`forwards-conversion` and :ref:`backwards-conversion` for more details. Automatic translation --------------------- The ``past`` package can automatically translate some simple Python 2 modules to Python 3 upon import. The goal is to support the "long tail" of real-world Python 2 modules (e.g. on PyPI) that have not been ported yet. For example, here is how to use a Python 2-only package called ``plotrique`` on Python 3. First install it: .. code-block:: bash $ pip3 install plotrique==0.2.5-7 --no-compile # to ignore SyntaxErrors (or use ``pip`` if this points to your Py3 environment.) Then pass a whitelist of module name prefixes to the ``autotranslate()`` function. Example: .. code-block:: bash $ python3 >>> from past import autotranslate >>> autotranslate(['plotrique']) >>> import plotrique This transparently translates and runs the ``plotrique`` module and any submodules in the ``plotrique`` package that ``plotrique`` imports. This is intended to help you migrate to Python 3 without the need for all your code's dependencies to support Python 3 yet. It should be used as a last resort; ideally Python 2-only dependencies should be ported properly to a Python 2/3 compatible codebase using a tool like ``futurize`` and the changes should be pushed to the upstream project. Note: the auto-translation feature is still in alpha; it needs more testing and development, and will likely never be perfect. For more info, see :ref:`translation`. Licensing --------- :Author: Ed Schofield, Jordan M. Adler, et al :Copyright: 2013-2018 Python Charmers Pty Ltd, Australia. :Sponsors: Python Charmers Pty Ltd, Australia, and Python Charmers Pte Ltd, Singapore. http://pythoncharmers.com Pinterest https://opensource.pinterest.com/ :Licence: MIT. See ``LICENSE.txt`` or `here <http://python-future.org/credits.html>`_. :Other credits: See `here <http://python-future.org/credits.html>`_. Next steps ---------- If you are new to Python-Future, check out the `Quickstart Guide <http://python-future.org/quickstart.html>`_. For an update on changes in the latest version, see the `What's New <http://python-future.org/whatsnew.html>`_ page.