Steven D'Aprano wrote: > 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 > > <snip> As previous reply
> 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 > > <snip> > <snip> That's the empirical evidence that I got but I want to be 100% sure that this holds in all cases - I'm wary about using empirical evidence leading to assumptions in my code - I take the paradigm that 'Assumption is the mother of all f**k-ups'. > In general, you should not call __eq__ directly, but use the == operator > instead. > > > <snip> Yeah I'm aware of that, I didn't want to start talking about ==, etc or I may mislead people into the - this is what __eq__ means path of explanation. Thanks for your response. Neil -- Neil Benn Senior Automation Engineer Cenix BioScience BioInnovations Zentrum Tatzberg 46 D-01307 Dresden Germany Tel : +49 (0)351 4173 154 e-mail : [EMAIL PROTECTED] Cenix Website : http://www.cenix-bioscience.com -- http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list