Is this only on solaris ? Python 2.3.3 (#1, Mar 19 2004, 16:18:33) [GCC 2.95.2 19991024 (release)] on sunos5 Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information. >>> a=[66.6, 333, 333, 1, 1234.5] >>> print a.count(333), a.count(66.6), a.count('x') 2 1 0 >>> a.append(333) >>> print a [66.599999999999994, 333, 333, 1, 1234.5, 333]