This is the vv1.21.0 version of the MicroPython documentation. The latest development version of this page may be more current.

Builtin types

Generated Sat 07 Oct 2023 07:35:47 UTC

Exception

All exceptions have readable value and errno attributes, not just StopIteration and OSError.

Cause: MicroPython is optimised to reduce code size.

Workaround: Only use value on StopIteration exceptions, and errno on OSError exceptions. Do not use or rely on these attributes on other exceptions.

Sample code:

e = Exception(1)
print(e.value)
print(e.errno)

CPy output:

uPy output:

Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "<stdin>", line 8, in <module>
AttributeError: 'Exception' object has no attribute 'value'
1
1

Exception chaining not implemented

Sample code:

try:
    raise TypeError
except TypeError:
    raise ValueError

CPy output:

uPy output:

Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "<stdin>", line 8, in <module>
TypeError

During handling of the above exception, another exception occurred:

Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "<stdin>", line 10, in <module>
ValueError
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "<stdin>", line 10, in <module>
ValueError:

User-defined attributes for builtin exceptions are not supported

Cause: MicroPython is highly optimized for memory usage.

Workaround: Use user-defined exception subclasses.

Sample code:

e = Exception()
e.x = 0
print(e.x)

CPy output:

uPy output:

0
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "<stdin>", line 8, in <module>
AttributeError: 'Exception' object has no attribute 'x'

Exception in while loop condition may have unexpected line number

Cause: Condition checks are optimized to happen at the end of loop body, and that line number is reported.

Sample code:

l = ["-foo", "-bar"]

i = 0
while l[i][0] == "-":
    print("iter")
    i += 1

CPy output:

uPy output:

iter
iter
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "<stdin>", line 10, in <module>
IndexError: list index out of range
iter
iter
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "<stdin>", line 12, in <module>
IndexError: list index out of range

Exception.__init__ method does not exist.

Cause: Subclassing native classes is not fully supported in MicroPython.

Workaround: Call using super() instead:

class A(Exception):
    def __init__(self):
        super().__init__()

Sample code:

class A(Exception):
    def __init__(self):
        Exception.__init__(self)


a = A()

CPy output:

uPy output:

Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "<stdin>", line 18, in <module>
  File "<stdin>", line 15, in __init__
AttributeError: type object 'Exception' has no attribute '__init__'

bytearray

Array slice assignment with unsupported RHS

Sample code:

b = bytearray(4)
b[0:1] = [1, 2]
print(b)

CPy output:

uPy output:

bytearray(b'\x01\x02\x00\x00\x00')
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "<stdin>", line 8, in <module>
NotImplementedError: array/bytes required on right side

bytes

bytes objects support .format() method

Cause: MicroPython strives to be a more regular implementation, so if both str and bytes support __mod__() (the % operator), it makes sense to support format() for both too. Support for __mod__ can also be compiled out, which leaves only format() for bytes formatting.

Workaround: If you are interested in CPython compatibility, don’t use .format() on bytes objects.

Sample code:

print(b"{}".format(1))

CPy output:

uPy output:

Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "<stdin>", line 7, in <module>
AttributeError: 'bytes' object has no attribute 'format'
b'1'

bytes() with keywords not implemented

Workaround: Pass the encoding as a positional parameter, e.g. print(bytes('abc', 'utf-8'))

Sample code:

print(bytes("abc", encoding="utf8"))

CPy output:

uPy output:

b'abc'
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "<stdin>", line 7, in <module>
NotImplementedError: keyword argument(s) not implemented - use normal args instead

Bytes subscription with step != 1 not implemented

Cause: MicroPython is highly optimized for memory usage.

Workaround: Use explicit loop for this very rare operation.

Sample code:

print(b"123"[0:3:2])

CPy output:

uPy output:

b'13'
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "<stdin>", line 7, in <module>
NotImplementedError: only slices with step=1 (aka None) are supported

dict

Dictionary keys view does not behave as a set.

Cause: Not implemented.

Workaround: Explicitly convert keys to a set before using set operations.

Sample code:

print({1: 2, 3: 4}.keys() & {1})

CPy output:

uPy output:

{1}
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "<stdin>", line 7, in <module>
TypeError: unsupported types for __and__: 'dict_view', 'set'

float

uPy allows implicit conversion of objects in maths operations while CPython does not.

Workaround: Objects should be wrapped in float(obj) for compatibility with CPython.

Sample code:

class Test:
    def __float__(self):
        return 0.5


print(2.0 * Test())

CPy output:

uPy output:

Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "<stdin>", line 14, in <module>
TypeError: unsupported operand type(s) for *: 'float' and 'Test'
1.0

uPy and CPython outputs formats may differ

Sample code:

print("%.1g" % -9.9)

CPy output:

uPy output:

-1e+01
-10

int

bit_length method doesn’t exist.

Cause: bit_length method is not implemented.

Workaround: Avoid using this method on MicroPython.

Sample code:

x = 255
print("{} is {} bits long.".format(x, x.bit_length()))

CPy output:

uPy output:

255 is 8 bits long.
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "<stdin>", line 9, in <module>
AttributeError: 'int' object has no attribute 'bit_length'

No int conversion for int-derived types available

Workaround: Avoid subclassing builtin types unless really needed. Prefer https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Composition_over_inheritance .

Sample code:

class A(int):
    __add__ = lambda self, other: A(int(self) + other)


a = A(42)
print(a + a)

CPy output:

uPy output:

84
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "<stdin>", line 14, in <module>
  File "<stdin>", line 10, in <lambda>
TypeError: unsupported types for __radd__: 'int', 'int'

list

List delete with step != 1 not implemented

Workaround: Use explicit loop for this rare operation.

Sample code:

l = [1, 2, 3, 4]
del l[0:4:2]
print(l)

CPy output:

uPy output:

[2, 4]
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "<stdin>", line 8, in <module>
NotImplementedError:

List slice-store with non-iterable on RHS is not implemented

Cause: RHS is restricted to be a tuple or list

Workaround: Use list(<iter>) on RHS to convert the iterable to a list

Sample code:

l = [10, 20]
l[0:1] = range(4)
print(l)

CPy output:

uPy output:

[0, 1, 2, 3, 20]
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "<stdin>", line 8, in <module>
TypeError: object 'range' isn't a tuple or list

List store with step != 1 not implemented

Workaround: Use explicit loop for this rare operation.

Sample code:

l = [1, 2, 3, 4]
l[0:4:2] = [5, 6]
print(l)

CPy output:

uPy output:

[5, 2, 6, 4]
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "<stdin>", line 8, in <module>
NotImplementedError:

str

Start/end indices such as str.endswith(s, start) not implemented

Sample code:

print("abc".endswith("c", 1))

CPy output:

uPy output:

True
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "<stdin>", line 7, in <module>
NotImplementedError: start/end indices

Attributes/subscr not implemented

Sample code:

print("{a[0]}".format(a=[1, 2]))

CPy output:

uPy output:

1
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "<stdin>", line 7, in <module>
NotImplementedError: attributes not supported

str(…) with keywords not implemented

Workaround: Input the encoding format directly. eg print(bytes('abc', 'utf-8'))

Sample code:

print(str(b"abc", encoding="utf8"))

CPy output:

uPy output:

abc
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "<stdin>", line 7, in <module>
NotImplementedError: keyword argument(s) not implemented - use normal args instead

str.ljust() and str.rjust() not implemented

Cause: MicroPython is highly optimized for memory usage. Easy workarounds available.

Workaround: Instead of s.ljust(10) use "%-10s" % s, instead of s.rjust(10) use "% 10s" % s. Alternatively, "{:<10}".format(s) or "{:>10}".format(s).

Sample code:

print("abc".ljust(10))

CPy output:

uPy output:

abc
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "<stdin>", line 7, in <module>
AttributeError: 'str' object has no attribute 'ljust'

None as first argument for rsplit such as str.rsplit(None, n) not implemented

Sample code:

print("a a a".rsplit(None, 1))

CPy output:

uPy output:

['a a', 'a']
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "<stdin>", line 7, in <module>
NotImplementedError: rsplit(None,n)

Subscript with step != 1 is not yet implemented

Sample code:

print("abcdefghi"[0:9:2])

CPy output:

uPy output:

acegi
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "<stdin>", line 7, in <module>
NotImplementedError: only slices with step=1 (aka None) are supported

tuple

Tuple load with step != 1 not implemented

Sample code:

print((1, 2, 3, 4)[0:4:2])

CPy output:

uPy output:

(1, 3)
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "<stdin>", line 7, in <module>
NotImplementedError: only slices with step=1 (aka None) are supported