On May 14, 1:20 pm, "Terry Reedy" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > Dicts first compare hashes and if they are equal, then check equality. If > two unequal strings have the same hash value, as is possible of course > (given only 2**32 possible hashes and many more possible strings), both can > still be used as different keys. Ditto for unequal numbers. Or for a > number and string with equal hashes. And so on. The first quoted > sentence, about mixing, is directed at minimizing such hash collisions.
Now my question is, since the definition mentions __cmp__ explicity. Is that the only function it uses? What if __ne__, __eq__ are defined, but not __cmp__? Finally I am still confused about the inequality. Does dict only care about the __cmp__ ouput being 0 and ignore the rest, or does it make use of -1,1 as well? Could I just say that 0 defines equality in my object and 1 otherwise, without regard of it being less than or greater than? Thanks! -- http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list
