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Python: fix(python): fix operator precedence and associativity in WorkflowState fallback evaluator - #10329
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🟡 Changes recommended
Arithmetic failures are treated as successful operands, producing incorrect comparison results, while early returns leave supported operator chains partially parsed and trigger false syntax errors.
6 open issues
Propagate runtime failures without treating echoes as operands · New Reject unterminated string literals · New Reject unterminated block comments · New Preserve leading-decimal and exponent numeric literals · New Use normalized operands in string concatenation · New Continue parsing after division by zero · New
What changed in this PR
This PR replaces WorkflowState’s string-splitting fallback evaluator with a tokenizer and parser to address #10162 when PowerFx is unavailable.
Changes:
- Adds operator precedence, left-associative arithmetic, parentheses, and quote-aware parsing.
- Defines the supported expression subset and raises
ValueErrorfor unsupported syntax. - Adds regression tests for expression evaluation and malformed-input rejection.
| File | Description |
|---|---|
python/packages/declarative/tests/test_workflow_state.py |
Adds precedence and rejection tests; updates unsupported-operator expectations. |
python/packages/declarative/agent_framework_declarative/_workflows/_state.py |
Introduces tokenization and parsing, replaces string splitting, and documents fallback behavior. |
Review effort: Balanced
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Motivation & Context
When PowerFx is not available,
WorkflowState.eval()falls back to_eval_simple(), which evaluates formulas by splitting the string on operators. That approach getsAnd/Orprecedence wrong, treats-and/as right-associative, and matches operators inside string literals, causing formulas to silently produce wrong values (repro cases in #10162). This change replaces the string-splitting logic with a small parser so the fallback agrees with PowerFx on the documented expression subset.Description & Review Guide
_eval_simple()with a tokenizer and precedence-climbing parser (Or < And < comparisons < + - < * / < unary !/Not()/negation), left-associative at every level, with(...)grouping while skipping string literals and comments._UnsupportedExpressionError(aValueError) for expressions outside the documented subset instead of returning incorrect results.Noneas 0 in arithmetic,+string concatenation fallback, division by zero returningNone, and echoing the formula on runtime errors).&now assert the raise.Related Issue
Fixes #10162
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AI assistance details: Used AI to help analyze the issue, the Copilot plan, and draft the PR description. The code changes and tests were written, reviewed, and verified locally.
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