When a string is being compared to an integer are the string and int compared with the ASCII code internally, or how is it? I know that strings compare greater than integers, but how does that internal comparison takes place?
>>> "a" > 1
True
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4Possible duplication? http://stackoverflow.com/questions/9306285/how-does-python-compare-strings-and-integers – CppLearner Feb 20 '12 at 06:30
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In your example, 1 < "a" because "i" for int comes alphabetically before "s" for string.
From the docs:
Objects of different types, except different numeric types and different string types, never compare equal; such objects are ordered consistently but arbitrarily (so that sorting a heterogeneous array yields a consistent result).
I believe this was one of the things changed in python 3 (you would get a TypeError here).
As for how it is done in CPython, objects of different types except numbers are ordered by their type names; objects of the same types that don’t support proper comparison are ordered by their address. Note that this is part of the implementation, not a part of the language.
wim
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+1 for the details and the note that is it an implementation detail. – Noufal Ibrahim Feb 20 '12 at 06:33
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You should check the source of the __gt__ method of the inbuilt string object to know the details but my guess is that the 1 is converted to a string using the str function and then then the two are compared.
Noufal Ibrahim
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