Strings in mathematical operation in python

Question

I was having some problems with my code , a statement was giving true when it should've been false

For some reason '6' > '14' was true. I changed them into int s instead of str s and the problem was solved but i was wondering why this has happened in the first place

here's a picture !(http://prntscr.com/o1c7na)!

Netwave · Accepted Answer · 2019-06-13 12:14:02Z

3

For comparing strings it compares char by char, the first char '6' has a greater ASCII representation that '1' hence it is bigger.

Here some examples of the behaviour:

>>> "a" > "b"
False
>>> "a" > "aaa"
False
>>> "1" > "2"
False
>>> "12" > "1"
True
>>> "6" > "14"
True
>>> "6" > "1"
True

The ASCII code can be retrieve with ord:

>>> ord("6")
54
>>> ord("1")
49

edited Jun 13, 2019 at 12:14

answered Jun 13, 2019 at 12:08

Netwave

43.1k6 gold badges69 silver badges110 bronze badges

Sign up to request clarification or add additional context in comments.

Comments

Asnim P Ansari · Accepted Answer · 2019-06-13 12:09:57Z

0

This happens because the ascii string comparison happens with ascii code comparison of each letter one by one. So in the 1st step 6 is compared to 1 and since 6 is > 1 it returns true.

answered Jun 13, 2019 at 12:09

Asnim P Ansari

2,5553 gold badges29 silver badges50 bronze badges

Collectives™ on Stack Overflow

Strings in mathematical operation in python

2 Answers 2

Comments

Comments

Your Answer

Hot Network Questions

Collectives™ on Stack Overflow

2 Answers 2

Comments

Comments

Your Answer

Sign up or log in

Post as a guest

Related