Module decimal

This is a Py2.3 implementation of decimal floating point arithmetic based on
the General Decimal Arithmetic Specification:

    www2.hursley.ibm.com/decimal/decarith.html

and IEEE standard 854-1987:

    www.cs.berkeley.edu/~ejr/projects/754/private/drafts/854-1987/dir.html

Decimal floating point has finite precision with arbitrarily large bounds.

The purpose of the module is to support arithmetic using familiar
"schoolhouse" rules and to avoid the some of tricky representation
issues associated with binary floating point.  The package is especially
useful for financial applications or for contexts where users have
expectations that are at odds with binary floating point (for instance,
in binary floating point, 1.00 % 0.1 gives 0.09999999999999995 instead
of the expected Decimal("0.00") returned by decimal floating point).

Here are some examples of using the decimal module:

>>> from decimal import *
>>> setcontext(ExtendedContext)
>>> Decimal(0)
Decimal("0")
>>> Decimal("1")
Decimal("1")
>>> Decimal("-.0123")
Decimal("-0.0123")
>>> Decimal(123456)
Decimal("123456")
>>> Decimal("123.45e12345678901234567890")
Decimal("1.2345E+12345678901234567892")
>>> Decimal("1.33") + Decimal("1.27")
Decimal("2.60")
>>> Decimal("12.34") + Decimal("3.87") - Decimal("18.41")
Decimal("-2.20")
>>> dig = Decimal(1)
>>> print dig / Decimal(3)
0.333333333
>>> getcontext().prec = 18
>>> print dig / Decimal(3)
0.333333333333333333
>>> print dig.sqrt()
1
>>> print Decimal(3).sqrt()
1.73205080756887729
>>> print Decimal(3) ** 123
4.85192780976896427E+58
>>> inf = Decimal(1) / Decimal(0)
>>> print inf
Infinity
>>> neginf = Decimal(-1) / Decimal(0)
>>> print neginf
-Infinity
>>> print neginf + inf
NaN
>>> print neginf * inf
-Infinity
>>> print dig / 0
Infinity
>>> getcontext().traps[DivisionByZero] = 1
>>> print dig / 0
Traceback (most recent call last):
  ...
  ...
  ...
DivisionByZero: x / 0
>>> c = Context()
>>> c.traps[InvalidOperation] = 0
>>> print c.flags[InvalidOperation]
0
>>> c.divide(Decimal(0), Decimal(0))
Decimal("NaN")
>>> c.traps[InvalidOperation] = 1
>>> print c.flags[InvalidOperation]
1
>>> c.flags[InvalidOperation] = 0
>>> print c.flags[InvalidOperation]
0
>>> print c.divide(Decimal(0), Decimal(0))
Traceback (most recent call last):
  ...
  ...
  ...
InvalidOperation: 0 / 0
>>> print c.flags[InvalidOperation]
1
>>> c.flags[InvalidOperation] = 0
>>> c.traps[InvalidOperation] = 0
>>> print c.divide(Decimal(0), Decimal(0))
NaN
>>> print c.flags[InvalidOperation]
1
>>>

Imports: _copy

Return a context manager for a copy of the supplied context

Uses a copy of the current context if no context is specified
The returned context manager creates a local decimal context
in a with statement:
    def sin(x):
         with localcontext() as ctx:
             ctx.prec += 2
             # Rest of sin calculation algorithm
             # uses a precision 2 greater than normal
         return +s # Convert result to normal precision

     def sin(x):
         with localcontext(ExtendedContext):
             # Rest of sin calculation algorithm
             # uses the Extended Context from the
             # General Decimal Arithmetic Specification
         return +s # Convert result to normal context