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Bug introduced in 10.1

I wrote a helper function to format real numbers in a certain format for writing .dbf files here. It relies on a new function to 10.1 - StringPadLeft.

Here's that function:

realformat[num_] := ToString@ScientificForm@PaddedForm[num + 0., {12, 11}, 
 NumberFormat -> (Row[{#1, "e", If[ToExpression[(#3 /. "" -> "0")] < 0, "-", "+"], 
 StringPadLeft[StringReplace[ToString@#3, "-" -> ""], 3, "0"]}] &)]

SetAttributes[realformat, Listable]

realformat[{56023.3, 16, -1523532.1}]

{" 5.60233000000e+004", " 1.60000000000e+001", "-1.52353210000e+006"}

However, the first time this is called (ie on a fresh kernel), I get the following error:

Get::noopen: Cannot open C:\Users\username\AppData\Roaming\Mathematica\Paclets\Repository\GeneralUtilities-10.2.1\Kernel\ 64.00000000000Bit\GeneralUtilities.mx\

And the output is as such:

{" 5.60233000000e+StringPadLeft[4, 3.00000000000e+StringPadLeft[, \ 3.00000000000, 0], 0]", " 1.60000000000e+StringPadLeft[1, \ 3.00000000000e+StringPadLeft[, 3.00000000000, 0], 0]", \ "-1.52353210000e+StringPadLeft[6, 3.00000000000e+StringPadLeft[, \ 3.00000000000, 0], 0]"}

Oh dear.

Now I can navigate to the folder C:\Users\username\AppData\Roaming\Mathematica\Paclets\Repository\GeneralUtilities-10.2.1 and manually run the GeneralUtilities package, which solves the issue, but that's rather annoying. All file permissions look okay and I've tried resetting all settings to no avail.

Anybody have a solution or is this a bug?

$Version
10.2.0 for Microsoft Windows (64-bit) (July 7, 2015)
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    $\begingroup$ For a workaround, evaluate StringPadLeft; before running realformat which will trigger all necessary autoloading. $\endgroup$
    – ilian
    Commented Aug 13, 2015 at 20:45
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    $\begingroup$ I've submitted a bug report to the appropriate developers, thank you for pointing this out. $\endgroup$
    – ilian
    Commented Aug 13, 2015 at 21:28
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    $\begingroup$ @ilian Thank you much! $\endgroup$
    – kale
    Commented Aug 13, 2015 at 23:35
  • $\begingroup$ @ilian Can you offer an explanation for the observation I made regarding the conversion of Integer to Real? I find that quite peculiar. $\endgroup$
    – Mr.Wizard
    Commented Aug 14, 2015 at 7:08
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    $\begingroup$ @Mr.Wizard While I haven't looked at it in depth, I think what happens is that PaddedForm temporarily overrides the default number formatting parameters (and restores them once it is done), but these non-default values are still in effect when the NumberFormat option value is applied. For a simpler example, consider PaddedForm[1, {2, 3}, NumberFormat -> ((Print@ToString[4]; #1) &)] where the printed form of 4 is getting padded. $\endgroup$
    – ilian
    Commented Aug 14, 2015 at 15:54

2 Answers 2

Reset to default
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Confirmed by WRI (@ilian) as bug introduced in 10.1.

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It seems that for some reason all Integer values are converted to Real in the environment in which the autoload process takes place, therefore the value of $SystemWordLength is changed to a Real which breaks the path. I have been unable to figure out the source of the Integer to Real conversion and therefore I do not know what else it may affect, but I can fix the autoload function itself which at least should handle other cases of this same problem.

With[
  {dv := DownValues @ PacletManager`Package`loadWolframLanguageCode},
  dv = dv /. wl : HoldPattern[ToString @ $SystemWordLength] :> RuleCondition[wl];
]
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  • $\begingroup$ That was the path I started down. But I didn't know if the real number conversion happened only when the message was printed... Then when @ilian stated you can call StringPadLeft first, I abandoned that idea. Interesting, nonetheless. $\endgroup$
    – kale
    Commented Aug 14, 2015 at 12:08

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