csignum-fast 1.1.4

High-performance universal sign function for Python

csignum-fast

A versatile, high-performance C++ implementation of the universal sign function for Python.

Released on January 1, 2026 ❄️ New Year Edition.

Versions 1.1.1+ corrected links and typos in documentation, and metadata for Github, after a major internal refactor in v1.1.0.

Key Features

1. Uniform Results: Always returns only -1, 0, or 1 as an int for valid numeric comparisons.
2. Correct Edge Case Handling:
   • sign(+0.0) and sign(-0.0) return 0.
   • sign(inf) returns 1, sign(-inf) returns -1.
   • For any NaN (float NaN, Decimal NaN, etc.), it returns math.nan (float).
3. Comprehensive Duck Typing: Delegates comparisons to the argument's class. Works seamlessly with:
   • Built-in int (including arbitrary-precision), bool, and float.
   • fractions.Fraction and decimal.Decimal.
   • Any existing and future objects that support rich comparisons with numbers.
4. Informative Error Handling for Easy Debugging: Provides clear, descriptive TypeError messages when passed non-numeric, non-scalar, or incomparable arguments.
5. ⚡ High Performance: Branch-optimized C++20 core.
6. ✅ Thoroughly Tested: Tested on 92 cases including different types, edge cases, new custom class, and inappropriate arguments. Also tested memory leaks and benchmarking against v1.0.2.
7. ✨ Pre-processing Engine: Use the preprocess keyword argument to transform input before calculation or trigger an "Early Exit" (recursion permitted).
8. 🛡️ Exception safety: The if_exc keyword argument allows you to define a fallback value (like None, math.nan, or -2) instead of crashing on invalid types.

Installation

pip install csignum-fast

Standard Usage

from signum import sign
from decimal import Decimal

print(sign(-10**100))       # -1
print(sign(3.14))           #  1
print(sign(Decimal("0.0"))) #  0
print(sign(float('-nan')))  # nan

Advanced Usage (New features since v1.1.0)

☢️ Attention: Contract Programming!

For productivity reasons, keyword argument values are not checked by the sign function. It is your responsibility to:

• Pass a callable with one argument for preprocess (must return None or a tuple).
• Pass a tuple for if_exc.

Passing incorrect types to these parameters may lead to undefined behavior or faults.

⚡ Custom Pre-processing with preprocess

You can pass a callable to transform the input. The argument of callable is the positional argument of sign. The callable should support a special return protocol:

• Return None: Proceed with usual calculation.
• Return (value,): Proceed with calculation using value as an argument. Why a tuple? Use (None,) to return None as a value.
• Return (any, result): Early Exit. Immediately return result as the final answer. any is ignored.

from signum import sign

from decimal import Decimal
from fractions import Fraction
from math import nan, inf
import re

# Convert str to float; uses lambda as callable
sign('5.0', preprocess=lambda a: (float(a),)) # Returns 1 (instead of exception)

# Treat small number as zero through argument replacement only
EPS = 1e-9
sign(-.187e-17, preprocess=lambda a: (0 if abs(a) < EPS else a,)) # Returns 0 (instead of -1)

# Treat small number as zero through argument or result replacement; uses variable as callable
ppf1 = lambda x: (x, 0) if abs(x) < EPS else (x,)
sign(-.187e-17, preprocess=ppf1) # Returns 0 (instead of -1)

# Extract number from string, replace only string argument; supplies function as callable
numeric_finder = re.compile(r"[-+]?(?:\d+\.\d*|\.\d+|\d+)(?:[eE][-+]?\d+)?")

def n_extract(s):
    if isinstance(s, str):
        match = numeric_finder.search(s)
        return (float(match.group()),) if match else None
    return None

sign("☠️ 15 men on the dead man's chest☠️", preprocess=n_extract) # Returns sign(15) == 1

# Do you want sign(complex) instead of exception?
def c_prep(z):
    if z == 0 or not isinstance(z, complex): return None
    # complex z != 0
    return (0, z/abs(z))

sign(-1+1j, preprocess=c_prep) # Returns (-0.7071067811865475+0.7071067811865475j)

# numpy flavor: float result for float or Decimal argument; uses recursive call of sign
ppf2 = lambda a: (a, float(sign(a))) if isinstance(a, (float, Decimal)) else None
sign(-5.0, preprocess=ppf2) # Returns -1.0 (instead of -1)

🛡️ Exception Safety with if_exc

With this keyword, you can avoid try-except blocks. If sign() encounters an incompatible type, it will return your fallback value instead of raising a TypeError. if_exc should be a tuple that permits you to pass None as the fallback value through if_exc=(None,). (Default if_exc=None is totally different).

import math
from signum import sign

# Returns -2 instead of crashing
res = sign("not a number", if_exc=(-2,))

You can use both keyword arguments at once

With preprocess, you replace arguments (or results) in specific cases, while if_exc prevents exceptions for all that remains.

📊 Performance & Quality Assurance

Benchmark Results

Versions 1.1.0+ maintain near-zero overhead (+0.8% latency) despite adding logic for new arguments. See details in the "Benchmarking" section in README for tests.

Reliability

• Memory Safety: Verified with long-run leak tests (0 bytes leaked over 4M iterations).
• Test Coverage: 92 validation cases (up from 51 in v1.0.2).

License

This project is licensed under the MIT License. See the LICENSE file for details.

Author

Alexandru Colesnicov: GitHub Profile