PicklingError: Can't pickle <class 'decimal.Decimal'>: it's not the same object as decimal.Decimal

Solution 1:

I got this error when running in an jupyter notebook. I think the problem was that I was using %load_ext autoreload autoreload 2. Restarting my kernel and rerunning solved the problem.

Solution 2:

One oddity of Pickle is that the way you import a class before you pickle one of it's instances can subtly change the pickled object. Pickle requires you to have imported the object identically both before you pickle it and before you unpickle it.

So for example:

from a.b import c
C = c()
pickler.dump(C)

will make a subtly different object (sometimes) to:

from a import b
C = b.c()
pickler.dump(C)

Try fiddling with your imports, it might correct the problem.

Solution 3:

I will demonstrate the problem with simple Python classes in Python2.7:

In [13]: class A: pass  
In [14]: class B: pass

In [15]: A
Out[15]: <class __main__.A at 0x7f4089235738>

In [16]: B
Out[16]: <class __main__.B at 0x7f408939eb48>

In [17]: A.__name__ = "B"

In [18]: pickle.dumps(A)
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
PicklingError: Can't pickle <class __main__.B at 0x7f4089235738>: it's not the same object as __main__.B

This error is shown because we are trying to dump A, but because we changed its name to refer to another object "B", pickle is actually confused with which object to dump - class A or B. Apparently, pickle guys are very smart and they have already put a check on this behavior.

Solution: Check if the object you are trying to dump has conflicting name with another object.

I have demonstrated debugging for the case presented above with ipython and ipdb below:

PicklingError: Can't pickle <class __main__.B at 0x7f4089235738>: it's not the same object as __main__.B

In [19]: debug
> /<path to pickle dir>/pickle.py(789)save_global()
    787                 raise PicklingError(
    788                     "Can't pickle %r: it's not the same object as %s.%s" %
--> 789                     (obj, module, name))
    790
    791         if self.proto >= 2:

ipdb> pp (obj, module, name)               **<------------- you are trying to dump obj which is class A from the pickle.dumps(A) call.**
(<class __main__.B at 0x7f4089235738>, '__main__', 'B')
ipdb> getattr(sys.modules[module], name)   **<------------- this is the conflicting definition in the module (__main__ here) with same name ('B' here).**
<class __main__.B at 0x7f408939eb48>

I hope this saves some headaches! Adios!!