On Dec 6, 4:17 pm, Steven D'Aprano <steve +comp.lang.pyt...@pearwood.info> wrote: > On Mon, 06 Dec 2010 08:59:12 -0800, TomF wrote: > > I'm aggravated by this behavior in python: > > > x = "4" > > print x < 7 # prints False > > I can't imagine why this design decision was made. > > You've never needed to deal with an heterogeneous list? > > data = ["Fred", "Barney", 2, 1, None] > data.sort()
Not once, ever. > Nevertheless, I agree that in hindsight, the ability to sort such lists > is not as important as the consistency of comparisons. I think that feeling the need to sort non-homogenous lists is indictative of bad design. If the order of the items doesn't matter, then there must be some small bit of homogeneity to exploit to use as a sort criterion. In that case you should use key= parameter or DSU. Carl Banks -- http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list
