Why does this work: 5<"five" ?

[Jiri Baum]

Ingo Linkweiler:
> today I found a really annoying "feature" of Python:

>>>> 5<"five"
> 1

> Why can I compare values of any type ?
...
> So what is the interpreter doing here?

It's documented that way. When comparing values of different types, you get
an arbitrary (but fixed) ordering. I think the docs say it can change from
version to version.

You'll note that 5>"five" gives you a 0.

This means you can do things like binary search trees without worrying
about how to sort disparate values.


Jiri
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Jiri Baum <jiri at baum.com.au>           http://www.csse.monash.edu.au/~jirib
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