Core Python Programming

4.6. Standard Type Built-in Functions

Along with generic operators which we have just seen, Python also provides some built-in functions that can be applied to all the basic object types: cmp(), repr(), str(), type(), and the single reverse or back quotes ( '' ) operator, which is functionally-equivalent to repr().

Table 4.4. Standard Type Built-in Functions

function	operation
cmp(obj1, obj2)	compares obj1 and obj2, returns integer i where: i < 0 if obj1 < obj2 i > 0 if obj1 > obj2 i == 0 if obj1 == obj2
repr(obj)/' obj'	returns evaluatable string representation of obj
str(obj)	returns printable string representation of obj
type(obj)	determines type of obj and return type object

4.6.1. cmp()

The cmp() built-in function CoMPares two objects, say, obj1 ...