Python List cmp() Method

Python List

Description

The cmp() method is used to compare elements of two lists.

Syntax

The syntax of the cmp() method is:

cmp(list1, list2)

Parameters

• list1 -- The list to be compared.
• list2 -- The list to be compared.

Return Value

If the elements being compared are of the same type, compare their values and return the result.

If the two elements are not of the same type, check whether they are numbers.

• If they are numbers, perform necessary numeric coercion, then compare.
• If one side's element is a number, then the other side's element is "greater" (numbers are "smallest").
• Otherwise, compare them by the alphabetical order of type names.

If one list reaches the end first, the other, longer list is "greater".

If we exhaust the elements of both lists and all elements are equal, then the result is a tie, that is, it returns 0.

Example

The following example demonstrates the usage of the cmp() function:

#!/usr/bin/python

list1, list2 = [123, 'xyz'], [456, 'abc']

print cmp(list1, list2);
print cmp(list2, list1);
list3 = list2 + [786];
print cmp(list2, list3)

The output of the above example is as follows:

-1
1
-1

Python List