René's URL Explorer Experiment

{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"DiscussionForumPosting","headline":"Remove empty_attribute_default; empty attributes always return ''","articleBody":"## Summary\n\n2.0 removes the `empty_attribute_default` config option entirely. Empty name attributes always return `''`. Once `None` support goes (see below for why it must), the only legal value left is the default — a dial with one position isn't configuration.\n\n## History: why it exists\n\nAdded in v0.3.15 (2016, pre-1.0) for #44: a user wanted `None` instead of `''` to store name components as database `NULL`s. The maintainer's first response was the one-liner that is now the migration path — \"you could do it easily too with something like `name.title or None`\" — and \"I don't have a strong preference.\" Making `None` the universal return broke the formatting tests, so a config option was added as a compromise. The first consequence arrived in the same thread: `str()` produced `'None John None Doe None (None)'`, patched in PR #45 with a `.replace(str(empty_attribute_default), '')` scrub that is still in `__str__` today.\n\n## What it has cost\n\n- Every `-\u003e str` annotation on the public API is false when the option is set to `None`; the attribute was deliberately left untyped in the mypy work (PR #250) because typing it honestly cascades `| None` through everything\n- The `\"J. None D.\"` initials bug, fixed in 1.3.0 — same laundering class\n- **Live data corruption** (#254): the PR #45 scrub can't distinguish an interpolated `None` from name text, so in None-mode `str(HumanName(\"Nonez Smith\"))` returns `'z Smith'` — the parse is correct and `__str__` strips the literal `None` out of the person's name\n\n## What removal deletes\n\nThe `or self.C.empty_attribute_default` tail on all seven attribute properties plus `surnames`/`given_names`/`last_base`/`last_prefixes` and `initials()`; the `__str__` scrub hack; the docs section; the test `type: ignore`s.\n\n## Removal mechanics (both learned from the 1.3.0 guard work)\n\n- **Tombstone, not deletion:** `empty_attribute_default` is a plain attribute, so naive removal makes `CONSTANTS.empty_attribute_default = None` a silent no-op — the accept-and-ignore failure family #241 exterminated. 2.0 keeps a property whose setter raises with the migration hint.\n- **Readers exist, not just writers:** the #44 thread advised asserting against `hn.C.empty_attribute_default` in downstream tests. Reads break loudly with the tombstone; migration is \"compare with `''` or truthiness.\"\n\n## Migration\n\n`hn.first or None` at the database boundary, or `{k: v or None for k, v in name.as_dict().items()}` for a whole record.\n\n## Bridge (1.4) — tracked in #263\n\n- [ ] `DeprecationWarning` on any assignment to `empty_attribute_default`\n- [ ] Ship the `__str__` mangling fix (#254) so None-mode users get correct output during their migration window\n\n","author":{"url":"https://github.com/derek73","@type":"Person","name":"derek73"},"datePublished":"2026-07-06T07:44:41.000Z","interactionStatistic":{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":"https://schema.org/CommentAction","userInteractionCount":1},"url":"https://github.com/255/python-nameparser/issues/255"}