Re: String to Num (was Re: Numeric Literals (Summary))

Attributions getting confusing, so I have snipped and rewritten:

Dave Storrs writes:
>  > Actually, this would be a good reason to have a function called
>  > "literal" -- if it went both ways.  So, I could do this:
>  > 
>  > 	print literal(200+55):hex;  # ==  print "0xff";
>  > 	print literal("0xff));      # ==  print 255;
> 

[email protected] wrote:
> why not str ?
> 
>  > 	print str( 200+55 :"format"=>"hex");  # ==  print "0xff";
>  > 	print str("0xff");      # ==  print 255;

It's just a cognitive difference--in my example, literal() would
return a string if given a number and return a number if given a
string (in each case, the output would be precisely what you would get
had you written the input as a literal in the other format, hence the
'literal' name).  In your example, str() does the same thing--but I
would suggest that a function named 'str' should always return a
string.

--Dks