equality not symmetric for subclasses of datetime.date and datetime.datetime

@ncoghlan

BPO	5516
Nosy	@ncoghlan, @abalkin, @jackdied, @ericsnowcurrently, @pganssle
Files	issue5516.diff: patch against trunk for datetimemodule.c and test_datetime.py issue5516_trunk.diff: udiff against 2.7 trunk

^{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/abalkin'
closed_at = None
created_at = <Date 2009-03-19.00:51:23.421>
labels = ['3.7', 'type-bug', 'library']
title = 'equality not symmetric for subclasses of datetime.date and datetime.datetime'
updated_at = <Date 2018-07-05.15:58:15.282>
user = 'https://bugs.python.org/jessaustin'

bugs.python.org fields:

activity = <Date 2018-07-05.15:58:15.282>
actor = 'p-ganssle'
assignee = 'belopolsky'
closed = False
closed_date = None
closer = None
components = ['Library (Lib)']
creation = <Date 2009-03-19.00:51:23.421>
creator = 'jess.austin'
dependencies = []
files = ['13403', '13419']
hgrepos = []
issue_num = 5516
keywords = []
message_count = 19.0
messages = ['83798', '84028', '84184', '103854', '103864', '103881', '103886', '104433', '106497', '106501', '106503', '106505', '106507', '106508', '108603', '108684', '195030', '195034', '195035']
nosy_count = 7.0
nosy_names = ['ncoghlan', 'belopolsky', 'jackdied', 'jess.austin', 'ysj.ray', 'eric.snow', 'p-ganssle']
pr_nums = []
priority = 'low'
resolution = 'postponed'
stage = 'needs patch'
status = 'open'
superseder = None
type = 'behavior'
url = 'https://bugs.python.org/issue5516'
versions = ['Python 3.7']

Linked PRs

gh-49766: Make date-datetime comparison more symmetric and flexible #114760

While the datetime.date and datetime.datetime classes consistently
handle mixed-type comparison, their subclasses do not:

>>> from datetime import date, datetime, time
>>> d = date.today()
>>> dt = datetime.combine(d, time())
>>> d == dt
False
>>> dt == d
False
>>> class D(date):
...     pass
... 
>>> class DT(datetime):
...     pass
... 
>>> d = D.today()
>>> dt = DT.combine(d, time())
>>> d == dt
True
>>> dt == d
False

I think this is due to the premature "optimization" of using memcmp() in
date_richcompare().

The attached patch fixes this issue, and updates the tests. Contrary to
my initial impression, it seems that a previous developer knew of this
behavior and thought it correct; see the comment of the test I deleted.
I left memcmp() in.

+1

Patch and tests work for me. Uploaded a patch that is identical except
the file paths are fixed.

Was the old behavior stable across compilers anyway? It memcmpared two
different structs and IIRC only the first item of each struct is
guaranteed to be at the start of the memory location. No?

With this patch only same-struct objects are memcmpared.

There is another inconsistency that this patch does not seem to cure. With patch applied and D and DT defined as in OP,

>>> D(1900,1,1) > DT(1900,1,1)
True

but

>>> DT(1900,1,1) < D(1900,1,1)
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "<stdin>", line 1, in <module>
TypeError: can't compare DT to D

and

>>> date(1900,1,1) < datetime(1900,1,1)
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "<stdin>", line 1, in <module>
TypeError: can't compare datetime.datetime to datetime.date

Note that without the patch,

>>> D(1900,1,1) > DT(1900,1,1)
False

but both behaviors seem to be wrong.

Upon further reflection I am -1 on this patch. First, as implemented this patch changes behavior of an explicit invocation of date.__eq__. The patch proposes to remove the following tests:

   # Neverthelss, comparison should work with the base-class (date)

   # projection if use of a date method is forced.

   self.assert_(as_date.\_\_eq__(as_datetime))

   different_day = (as_date.day + 1) % 20 + 1

   self.assert_(not as_date.\_\_eq__(as_datetime.replace(day=

                                                different_day)))

Second, the patch introduces dependence of the baseclass method (date_richcompare) on a particular subclass (PyDateTime_Check). This is against OOP principles.

I am not sure how the "equality not symmetric" issue can be fixed. In my opinion current datetime implementation is fighting OOP and violating the substitution principle in an attempt to prevent date to datetime comparison. I would prefer seeing one of two things: either datetime not inheriting from date or making datetime to date comparison compare date part alone. Once you stop fighting OOP principles, symmetry of equality for subclasses will follow from that for the base class automatically.

Given that either of these solutions means a major change, I think it is best to leave the things as they are now.

To be systematic, without the patch:

>>> D(1900, 1, 1) > DT(1900, 1, 1)
False
>>> D(1900, 1, 1) < DT(1900, 1, 1)
False
>>> DT(1900, 1, 1) > D(1900, 1, 1)
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "<stdin>", line 1, in <module>
TypeError: can't compare DT to D
>>> DT(1900, 1, 1) < D(1900, 1, 1)
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "<stdin>", line 1, in <module>
TypeError: can't compare DT to D

with the patch:

>>> D(1900, 1, 1) > DT(1900, 1, 1)
True
>>> D(1900, 1, 1) < DT(1900, 1, 1)
False
>>> DT(1900, 1, 1) > D(1900, 1, 1)
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "<stdin>", line 1, in <module>
TypeError: can't compare DT to D
>>> DT(1900, 1, 1) < D(1900, 1, 1)
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "<stdin>", line 1, in <module>
TypeError: can't compare DT to D

It might seem like the latter behavior is marginally better, but really this is just a mess, since a date-datetime comparison TypeErrors in all directions. I appreciate Alexander's more experienced perspective, but it's not obvious to me that this problem is insoluble simply due to OOP algebra. I'm going to keep tinkering with this to see if there isn't a way to satisfy his concerns AND fix these bugs WITHOUT breaking the established (and admittedly anti-OOP) behavior that dates are not equal to datetimes.

(Incidentally, the test I removed still seems to be an arbitrary ad-hoc requirement that subclasses of date behave differently than date itself. I don't see how one could rely on this given the other inconsistencies with date subclasses, and so violating this in order to fix more serious problems seems acceptable.)

I'm reminded of the set and frozenset situation, which seems almost dual to this one. set and frozenset don't inherit from each other, but they do compare. This seems to bite you only when you try to redefine comparison in subclasses.

On Wed, Apr 21, 2010 at 2:33 PM, Jess Austin <report@bugs.python.org> wrote:
..

It might seem like the latter behavior is marginally better, but really this is just a mess, since a date-datetime comparison TypeErrors in all
directions. I appreciate Alexander's more experienced perspective, but it's not obvious to me that this problem is insoluble simply due to OOP
algebra. I'm going to keep tinkering with this to see if there isn't a way to satisfy his concerns AND fix these bugs WITHOUT breaking the
established (and admittedly anti-OOP) behavior that dates are not equal to datetimes.

I certainly don't have a proof that this is impossible, so best of
luck. Note, however that the problematic behavior is due to D/DT
classes implementor's choice not to derive DT from D. Whether
resulting violation of the symmetry of equality is a bug in python or
D/DT implementation is at least an open question.

I think I'll concur with the "this is a mess" assessment.

Given that state of affairs, punting on this until 3.2 (at the earliest).

I am leaning towards "won't fix". Any objections?

Reproduced on 3.13:

Python 3.13.0a0 (heads/main:ecc05e23a1, Jul 28 2023, 20:21:40) [Clang 14.0.3 (clang-1403.0.22.14.1)] on darwin
Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information.
>>> from datetime import date, datetime, time
>>> d = date.today()
>>> dt = datetime.combine(d, time())
>>> d == dt
False
>>> dt == d
False
>>> class D(date): pass
... 
>>> class DT(datetime): pass
... 
>>> d = D.today()
>>> dt = DT.combine(d, time())
>>> d == dt
True
>>> dt == d
False
>>>

pythongh-49766: Make date-datetime comparison more symmetric and flex…

@ncoghlan

@ncoghlan, @ericsnowcurrently, you participated in this discussion, can you take a look at #114760? It does not only fixes this issue, it makes the code simpler.

gh-49766: Make date-datetime comparison more symmetric and flexible (G…

It may be too serious change for backporting.

pythongh-49766: Make date-datetime comparison more symmetric and flex…

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equality not symmetric for subclasses of datetime.date and datetime.datetime #49766

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equality not symmetric for subclasses of datetime.date and datetime.datetime #49766

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jessaustin commented on Mar 19, 2009

jessaustin commented on Mar 23, 2009

jackdied commented on Mar 26, 2009

AlexanderBelopolsky commented on Apr 21, 2010

AlexanderBelopolsky commented on Apr 21, 2010

jessaustin commented on Apr 21, 2010

AlexanderBelopolsky commented on Apr 21, 2010

ncoghlan commented on Apr 28, 2010

abalkin commented on May 26, 2010

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