Core Python Programming

6.11. Operators

6.11.1. Standard Type Operators

In Chapter 4, we introduced a number of operators that apply to most objects, including the standard types. We will take a look at how some of those apply to lists.

>>> list1 = [ 'abc', 123 ]
>>> list2 = [ 'xyz', 789 ]
>>> list3 = [ 'abc', 123 ]
>>> 1ist1 < list2
1
>>> list2 < list3
0
>>> (list2 > list3) and (list1 == list3)
1

When using the value comparison operators, comparing numbers and strings is straightforward, but not so much for lists, however. List comparisons are somewhat tricky, but logical. The comparison operators use the same algorithm as the cmp() built-in function. The algorithm basically works like this: the elements of both lists are compared until there is a determination ...