stlbs 1.0.1

A datatype to make using stones and pounds easier

stlbs

The stlbs package (pronounced stonepounds) is the home of the StLb datatype.

In the UK, people often measure their weight in stones and pounds - it's common to hear people describe themselves as weighing, for example, "thirteen stones and four pounds". Working in code with these units can be annoying. You need to treat the stones and pounds as separate values somehow; no-one will thank you for presenting a weight as 1.29 stones when they expected to see 1 stone and 4 lbs.

The StLb datatype (pronounced stonepound) makes working with stones and pounds much easier. An instance of StLb is single object which represents a weight in the form of stones and pounds (lbs). It gives an easy way to display such a weight as numbers or text, and offers a simple way to do arithmatic with weights in stones and pounds. stlbs has no dependencies outside the Python Standard Library.

Basic usage

Installation

Install stlbs from pip:

pip install stlbs

stlbs has no third party dependencies, and supports Python 3.9 and later.

The StLb object - initialisation

The StLb() class is a data type to hold weights in stones and lbs.

>>> from stlbs import StLb

StLb() is initialised with either a list or a tuple to represent whole stones and the remainder lbs:

>>> my_weight = StLb([10, 7])
>>> my_weight
StLb object: 10st and 7 lb [147 lb]

As you can see, we get a nice textual representation of the object.

You can also initialise StLb by passing only lbs:

>>> my_weight = StLb([0, 147])
>>> my_weight
StLb object: 10st and 7 lb [147 lb]

When initialised with lbs only, such as in the example above, the StLb object will correctly convert to stones and lbs.

StLb attributes

An instance of StLb has a number of useful attributes. Given an instance of:

>>> my_weight = StLb([10, 7])

We can access the whole_stones and remainder_lbs values separately:

>>> my_weight.whole_stones
10

>>> my_weight.remainder_lbs
7

We can get the value in lbs:

>>> my_weight.in_lbs
147

We can get a nice textual representation:

>>> my_weight.text
'10st and 7 lb [147 lb]'

Doing sums with StLb objects

Addition

You can add two instances of StLb together:

>>> my_first_weight = StLb((4, 7))
>>> my_second_weight = StLb((1, 0))
>>> my_first_weight + my_second_weight
StLb object: 5st and 7 lb [77 lb]

You can also add in place to a single StLb object:

>>> my_weight = StLb((4, 7))
>>> my_weight
StLb object: 4st and 7 lb [63 lb]

>>> my_weight += (1, 0)  # Add 1st and zero lbs
>>> my_weight
StLb object: 5st and 7 lb [77 lb]

Subtraction

Subtraction works in the same way as addition. You can subtract one instance of StLb from another:

>>> my_first_weight = StLb((4, 7))
>>> my_second_weight = StLb((1, 0))
>>> my_first_weight - my_second_weight
StLb object: 3st and 7 lb [49 lb]

You can also subtract in place:

>>> my_weight = StLb([4, 7])
>>> my_weight -= (1, 0)
>>> my_weight
StLb object: 3st and 7 lb [49 lb]

Note that the result of subtraction from an instance of StLb cannot be negative. Any mathematical operation that would result in a negative number raises a SubtractionBelowZeroError exception.

Multiplication

You can multiply two StLb objects together:

>>> weight_1 = StLb((2, 0))
>>> weight_2 = StLb((2, 0))
>>> weight_1 * weight_2
StLb object: 56st and 0 lb [784 lb]

That answer might look surprising if you were expecting 2st * 2st to equal 4st. Multiplying two StLb objects together multiplies their in_lbs values and converts back to stones and lbs. Our example of 2st * 2st is the same as saying 28lbs * 28lbs, which gives 784lbs or 56st.

If you just want to multiply a StLb object by a number (rather than another StLb instance), you can:

>>> my_weight = StLb((2, 0))
>>> my_weight * 2
StLb object: 4st and 0 lb [56 lb]

Division

Lastly, it is also possible to divide instances of StLb:

>>> weight_1 = StLb((10, 0))
>>> weight_2 = StLb((5, 0))
>>> weight_1 / weight_2
2.0

You can also divide a StLb object by a number:

>>> weight_1 = StLb((4, 0))
>>> weight_1
StLb object: 4st and 0 lb [56 lb]
>>> weight_1 / 2
StLb object: 2.0st and 0.0 lb [28.0 lb]

A note on values for doing maths with StLb

Any mathematical operation that can be performed on a StLb instance with another instance (such as adding them together) will also work if you use a list or tuple in the format (whole_stones, remainder_lbs). For example, these two expressions will give the same result:

>>> StLb((10, 7)) + StLb((1, 0))
StLb object: 11st and 7 lb [161 lb]

>>> StLb((10, 7)) + (1, 0)
StLb object: 11st and 7 lb [161 lb]

Constraints

A StLb object has two constraints on it:

• It can't be initialised with negative values for whole_stones or remainder_lbs. Doing so will raise a ValueError.
• Subtracting from it can't result in a negative number. Doing so will result in a SubtractionBelowZeroError.