comparing strings and ints

[Randall Hopper]

Fredrik Lundh:
 |Randall Hopper:
 |>Gordon McMillan:
 |> |Randall Hopper wrote:
 |> |> Fredrik Lundh:
 |> |>  |
 |> |>  |    Objects of different types always compare unequal, and are
 |> |>  |    ordered consistently but arbitrarily.
 |> |> 
 |> |> Is there a case where this could be useful (with its undefined
 |> |> behavior)?  I believe that is the root of the question.
 |> |
 |> |I'd happily bet your wife and firstborn child that there's code that
 |> |relies on it <wink>, if only because after sorting a list, all the ints
 |> |will end up in a clump, and all the strings in another, etc. 
 |>
 |>Oh, I also have __no doubt__ that someone is using this unofficial,
 |>undocumented behavior.  But they don't have a leg to stand on if the
 |>ordering breaks in a future Python version ;-)
 |
 |interestingly enough, you included my documentation quote in
 |a post claiming that this is an undocumented feature...

I was of course referring to the behavior Gordon McMillan mentioned in the
message I replied to.  Namely, that sorting a list of objects of
hetrogenous primitive types "groups" the instances of a particular type
together (ints together, strings together, etc.).

I'm taking Gordon's word that that's what it does.  The documentation you
cited simply said "arbitrary" ordering.

Unless it's documented as official behavior, I would think that expecting
it is probably not a safe bet.

-- 
Randall Hopper
aa8vb at yahoo.com