Why does __ne__ exist?

[breamoreboy at gmail.com]

On Monday, January 8, 2018 at 12:02:09 AM UTC, Ethan Furman wrote:
> On 01/07/2018 12:33 PM, Chris Angelico wrote:
> > On Mon, Jan 8, 2018 at 7:13 AM, Thomas Jollans wrote:
> >> On 07/01/18 20:55, Chris Angelico wrote:
> >>> Under what circumstances would you want "x != y" to be different from
> >>> "not (x == y)" ?
> >>
> >> In numpy, __eq__ and __ne__ do not, in general, return bools.
> >>
> >>>>> a = np.array([1,2,3,4])
> >>>>> b = np.array([0,2,0,4])
> >>>>> a == b
> >> array([False,  True, False,  True], dtype=bool)
> >>>>> a != b
> >> array([ True, False,  True, False], dtype=bool)
> >
> > Thanks, that's the kind of example I was looking for. Though numpy
> > doesn't drive the core language development much, so the obvious next
> > question is: was this why __ne__ was implemented, or was there some
> > other reason? This example shows how it can be useful, but not why it
> > exists.
> 
> Actually, I think it is why it exists.  If I recall correctly, the addition of the six comparative operators* was added 
> at the behest of the scientific/numerical community.
> 
> --
> ~Ethan~
> 
> * Yeah, I can't remember the cool name for those six operators at the moment.  :(

The six rich comparison methods were added to 2.1 as a result of PEP 207, which confirms that you're correct, they were added at the request of the numpyites.

--
Kindest regards.

Mark Lawrence.