python-humanize / python-humanize/humanize
intword: values between 10^36 and a googol format as huge decillion counts, and rounding to the next unit does not carry
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Description
What happened
intword handles values up to 1000 decillion (10^36) and exactly a googol
(10^100) well, but everything in between formats as an enormous decillion
count:
>>> import humanize
>>> humanize.intword(10**100)
'1.0 googol'
>>> humanize.intword(10**100 - 10**93)
'9999999000000000610151082626636586748864734715312950532670947852288.0 decillion'
>>> humanize.intword(10**50)
'100000000000000000.0 decillion'
A 67 digit unit count defeats the purpose of a human readable number, and
a value just below a googol that rounds up to it never carries to
"1.0 googol".
Verified on humanize 4.16.0 (published wheel) and on current main
(c3a124c), Python 3.11.
Why this looks like a bug rather than a choice
This is the same class of boundary behavior that #328 recently fixed for
metric() (carry to the next SI prefix when rounding reaches 1000). The
powers list jumps from decillion (10^33) to googol (10^100), and the
selection loop picks decillion for anything under a googol, no matter how
large the resulting count is. Values above the largest power already fall
back to str(value), which suggests the intended behavior for
"no reasonable unit" is the plain number, not a unit with a 67 digit
multiplier.
Expected
One of the following, whichever matches the project's intent:
- Values whose formatted count reaches 1000 of a unit with no adjacent
next power fall back tostr(value)(consistent with the existing
above-maximum behavior), and values that round up to exactly the next
power carry to it ("1.0 googol"), consistent with #328's carry rule. - Or simply fall back to
str(value)for the whole gap between 10^36
and 10^100.
I am happy to open a PR with regression tests for the boundary cases once
maintainers confirm which behavior is intended.
How this was found
An automated review gate proposed edge case tests for the recent number.py
changes (the #328 carry fix among them) and executed them against the
code; the "carry just below the next unit" test failed with the output
above. The failing test and its observed output are reproducible by hand
as shown.
Contributor guide
First steps
- Read the whole issue, then the project's contributing guide.
- Comment on the issue to say you are picking it up — it saves two people doing the same work.
- Fork the repository and make your change on a branch.
- Open a pull request that references the issue number.
Research direction
Start in the number.py changes referenced in the report and reproduce the boundary examples with Python 3.11. Confirm with maintainers whether the gap should fall back to str(value) or carry at the googol boundary, then add regression tests for the selected behavior. Done means values near 10^100 no longer produce enormous decillion counts and rounding follows the agreed rule.
Written by the indexing model from the issue text.
Assessment
- Tech stack
- python
- Domain
- backend
- Issue type
- Bug
- Difficulty
- 3/5
- Estimated time
- 1-2 days
- Activity status
- Quiet
- Clarity
- Mostly clear
- Newbie friendliness
- 52/100