Core Python Programming

5.6. Built-in Functions

5.6.1. Standard Type Functions

In the last chapter, we introduced the cmp(), str(), and type() built-in functions that apply for all standard types. For numbers, these functions will compare two numbers, convert numbers into strings, and tell you a number's type, respectively. Here are some examples of using these functions:

>>> cmp(-6, 2)]
-1
>>> cmp(-4.333333, -2.718281828)
-1
>>> cmp(0xFF, 255)
0
>>> str(0xFF)
'255'
>>> str(55.3e2)
'5530.0'
>>> type(0xFF)
<type 'int'>
>>> type(98765432109876543210L)
<type 'long int'>
>>> type(2-1j)
<type 'complex'>

5.6.2. Numeric Type Functions

Python currently supports different sets of built-in functions for numeric types. Some convert from one numeric type to another while others ...