[PyQt] PyQt5 and QString

[Phil Thompson]

On 04-01-2014 10:50 pm, David Cortesi wrote:
> I've just got Qt5 and PyQt5 installed and am at the very beginning of
> converting some Py2/Qt4 apps to Python 3 and Qt5. Exciting times!
>
> First puzzlement is the removal of QString. I've read the "gotchas"
> and the "differences" pages at 
> http://pyqt.sourceforge.net/Docs/PyQt5.
> These make it clear that when a Qt class expects a QString input, a
> Py3 str type is accepted.
>
> It doesn't explicitly say, but I'm guessing, whenever a Qt method
> returns a QString, a Py3 str type is automatically produced...?

Yes.

> And so, there was no need to retain the QString class, just do
> everything with the str type ... ?

Yes.

> Please don't take this as criticism. I expect there are good reasons
> for the change, but I would like to understand them. Two issues come
> to mind. First, if one's PyQt4 code made use of QString methods such
> as .isEmpty(), .arg(), or .indexOf(), one now must recode to use
> equivalent methods of Python str (approximate equivalent in the case
> of .arg(), which is not much like str.format()). What is the benefit
> from requiring this recoding, or, what was the penalty of retaining a
> QString type for the sake of existing code?

It's more Pythonic to use Python strings than Qt strings.

> Second thought is performance: does every automatic conversion 
> between
> QString and str entail a copy? There are places where my code gets a
> QString from one method call, and just hands it along as an input to
> another, without any processing. Here's an example:
>
>     book_path = QFileDialog.getOpenFileName(...)
>     if not book_path.isEmpty():
>         book_info = QFileInfo(book_path)
>
> First, that needs recoding because .isEmpty() is gone. That aside, 
> are
> there two memory-to-memory copies of the path string happening there?
> Where in PyQt4, it would just be storing and passing a reference to a
> QString object?

That's correct. However given everything else that is going on to 
implement those lines, the two copies are negligible.

Phil