On Mon, 11 Jul 2005 12:42:55 +0200, Neil Benn wrote: > Hello, > > I can't find the docs for __eq__ on a dict and I can't find > a description on what the eq does (strangely it does implement > and < > but I have no idea what that does). Does anyone know (definitively) > what the __eq__, __gt__, __lt__ methods do. > > BTW, google is not my friend - I invited it out for a drink last > week and it stood me up :-).
It works for me. Google on "__eq__ Python" and the 5th and 6th sites are: http://python.active-venture.com/ref/customization.html http://www.network-theory.co.uk/docs/pylang/ref_32.html Normally, asking Python for help is a good way to read the docs, but in this particular case, it is a big let-down: py> help({}.__eq__) Help on method-wrapper: __eq__ = <method-wrapper object> For any two objects x and y, when you call x == y Python calls x.__eq__(y). That includes dicts: py> dictA = {0: "spam"} py> dictB = {0: "sp" + "am"} py> dictC = {1: "ham"} py> py> dictA == dictB True py> dictA.__eq__(dictB) # same as dictA == dictB True py> dictB == dictC # calls dictB.__eq__(dictC) False Two dicts are equal if they have the same keys and the same values. In general, you should not call __eq__ directly, but use the == operator instead. Likewise: x > y becomes x.__gt__(y) x < y becomes x.__lt__(y) x >= y becomes x.__ge__(y) x <= y becomes x.__le__(y) x != y becomes x.__ne__(y) x <> y also becomes x.__ne__(y) -- Steven -- http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list
