icmp - should this go in itertools?

[Tom Anderson]

Hi all,

This is a little function to compare two iterators:



def icmp(a, b):
 	for xa in a:
 		try:
 			xb = b.next()
 			d = cmp(xa, xb)
 			if (d != 0):
 				return d
 		except StopIteration:
 			return 1
 	try:
 		b.next()
 		return -1
 	except StopIteration:
 		return 0



It's modelled after the way cmp treats lists - if a and b are lists, 
icmp(iter(a), iter(b)) should always be the same as cmp(a, b).

Is this any good? Would it be any use? Should this be added to itertools?

tom

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