basic questions on cmp, < and sort

[Fredrik Lundh]

Schüle Daniel wrote:

> first question
> 
> In [117]: cmp("ABC",['A','B','C'])
> Out[117]: 1
> 
> against what part of the list is the string "ABC" compared?

     http://docs.python.org/lib/comparisons.html

     "Objects of different types, except different numeric types and
     different string types, never compare equal; such objects are
     ordered consistently but arbitrarily (so that sorting a hetero-
     geneous array yields a consistent result)"

> class X does not implement < and cmp
> what is this comparision is based on?

     "objects of the same types that don't support proper comparison
     are ordered by their address"

> third question
> 
> sort([[1,2,3],["ABC"],['Z','A'], X(), 4)
> 
> how does python handle heterogenous items in the list
> in this case?


     "Objects of different types, except different numeric types and
     different string types, never compare equal; such objects are
     ordered consistently but arbitrarily (so that sorting a hetero-
     geneous array yields a consistent result)"

> first I assumed

no, first you assumed that this wasn't documented.

</F>