In article <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>, databyss <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> I have a simple program and the output isn't what I expect. Could > somebody please explain why? > > Here's the code: > > #simple program > print "v = 2" > v = 2 > print "v**v = 2**2 =", v**v > print "v**v**v = 2**2**2 =", v**v**v > print "v**v**v**v = 2**2**2**2 =", v**v**v**v > #end program > > Here's the output: > > >>> > v = 2 > v**v = 2**2 = 4 > v**v**v = 2**2**2 = 16 > v**v**v**v = 2**2**2**2 = 65536 > >>> > > I would expect 2**2**2**2 to be 256 Python's ** operator associates to the right, not to the left; thus, 2 ** 2 ** 2 ** 2 ... really means 2 ** (2 ** (2 ** 2)) ... and not ((2 ** 2) ** 2) ** 2 ... as you seem to expect. As usual, you can enforce different associations by explicitly including the parentheses. Cheers, -M -- Michael J. Fromberger | Lecturer, Dept. of Computer Science http://www.dartmouth.edu/~sting/ | Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH, USA -- http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list
