io.ascii basic and fixed_width formats do not round-trip boolean data

Description

When reading back an astropy table that had been written in fixed_width_two_line format and had contained a boolian column, the boolean values get read back as a string

Expected behavior

I expected to get the table back in the formats in which it was writen

Actual behavior

As noted, I got back a string value for True or False, and so I could not run the same code on the table that I could run before it was written out.

Steps to Reproduce

1. [First Step]
2. [Second Step]
3. [and so on…]

from astropy.table import Table
import numpy as np

z=np.linspace(0,50)
x=Table([z,z],names=['foo','goo'])
x['Good']=True
x.info()
x.write('foo.txt',format='ascii.fixed_width_two_line',overwrite=True)
xx=ascii.read('foo.txt')
xx.info()
        

Here is what this produces

from astropy.table import Table

import numpy as np

​

z=np.linspace(0,50)

x=Table([z,z],names=['foo','goo'])

x['Good']=True

x.info()

x.write('foo.txt',format='ascii.fixed_width_two_line',overwrite=True)

xx=ascii.read('foo.txt')

xx.info()

        

<Table length=50>
name  dtype 
---- -------
 foo float64
 goo float64
Good    bool
<Table length=50>
name  dtype 
---- -------
 foo float64
 goo float64
Good    str4

System Details

import platform; print(platform.platform()) Darwin-19.6.0-x86_64-i386-64bit import sys; print(“Python”, sys.version) Python 3.7.11 (default, Jul 27 2021, 07:03:16) [Clang 10.0.0 ] import erfa; print(“pyerfa”, erfa.version) pyerfa 1.7.1.1 import astropy; print(“astropy”, astropy.version) astropy 4.2 import scipy; print(“Scipy”, scipy.version) Scipy 1.4.1 import matplotlib; print(“Matplotlib”, matplotlib.version) Matplotlib 3.5.0

[taldcroft]

These days I’m less and less inclined to have configuration options that silently change the behavior of code. In other words when a line of code or function behaves fundamentally differently based on a config item, then that makes it hard for readers of the code to know what it will do.

Instead, even if it is a little less convenient, it is better to be explicit.

[pllim]

Oh, wait… maybe I typed it wrong. Seems to work now!

from astropy.table import Table
import numpy as np

z=np.linspace(0,50)
x=Table([z,z],names=['foo','goo'])
x['Good']=True
x.write('foo.txt',format='ascii.ecsv',overwrite=True)
xx=Table.read('foo.txt', format='ascii.ecsv')
xx.info()

<Table length=50>
name  dtype 
---- -------
 foo float64
 goo float64
Good    bool