uuid.UUID() generates 'invalid syntax' and 'badly formed' uuids

[Malik A. Rumi]

Background: I've been struggling for about a week trying to use fixtures to load initial data into a website. See ​http://stackoverflow.com/questions/35463713/badly-formed-hexadecimal-uuid-string-error-in-django-fixture-json-uuid-conversi and ​https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/django-users/Q4zybgExDyY.

Once I did the test suggested to me on SO, it became clear that this was not a json issue. That test was as follows:

In [5]: e.uuid
Out[5]: UUID('61877565-5fe5-4175-9f2b-d24704df0b74')
In [6]: uuid.UUID(61877565-5fe5-4175-9f2b-d24704df0b74)
File "<ipython-input-6-56137f5f4eb6>", line 1
uuid.UUID(61877565-5fe5-4175-9f2b-d24704df0b74)
                                              ^
SyntaxError: invalid syntax  # It doesn't show here for some reason, but the caret is pointing to the 4th '5' in the 12th position, from left to right.

It did not matter if I copy pasted the uuid or retyped the whole thing by hand, I got the same error. If I quoted the uuid, I got a different error:

In [7]: uuid.UUID('61877565-5fe5-4175-9f2b-d24704df0b74')
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
NameError                                 Traceback (most recent call last)
<ipython-input-7-3b4d3e5bd156> in <module>()
----> 1 uuid.UUID('61877565-5fe5-4175-9f2b-d24704df0b74')

NameError: name 'uuid' is not defined

I am using Ubuntu 15.10, Django 1.9.1, Postgresql 9.4 and Python 2.7.10. I don't know if this a Python issue rather than a Django issue, but it can't, or shouldn't, be that Django/Python can't accept, recognize, or evaluate a uuid it generated seconds earlier.

[Simon Charette]

Hi MalikRumi,

I'm afraid this has nothing to do with Django.

From what I can see the first exception occurred because you forgot to quote the string you attempted to pass to the uuid.UUID constructor. You can get a similar exception by simply pasting the expression 61877565-5fe5-4175-9f2b-d24704df0b74 in a Python shell.

The second exception occurred because you attempted to construct a uuid.UUID instance by referring to the uuid module which you has not imported in your shell global context. I guess you simply imported UUID from uuid (you did from uuid import UUID instead of import uuid).

I suppose you got confused because the representation of uuid.UUID objects (repr(uuid.UUID('61877565-5fe5-4175-9f2b-d24704df0b74'))), which is what your shell is displaying by default in Out[N]:, always include the uuid module prefix.

In the future please stick to the support channel (like the thread on django-users@) until you get a confirmation this is actually a bug as this tracker is not meant to be used as a support platform.

[Malik A. Rumi]

1. Thank you for the explanation. I did as you suggested and got the result you predicted:

In [1]: import uuid

In [2]: uuid.UUID('61877565-5fe5-4175-9f2b-d24704df0b74')
Out[2]: UUID('61877565-5fe5-4175-9f2b-d24704df0b74')

2. As I said in my original report, I had posted to the forums before coming to you. One answer strongly suggested an issue, which is why I decided to come to you. However, this morning I see a retraction/further explanation from him that is more in line with what you said here. So I am sorry for taking your time, but I thought I had run out of options.

3. What does 'confirmation' of a bug look like?

[Simon Charette]

What does 'confirmation' of a bug look like?

An exception with a traceback involving Django's source code should be a good hint it might be Django bug.

In the case of your report Django isn't involved at all and both traceback point to the cause of your errors (a syntax and name a error).