HNGlance

Top Best New Show

Python's Max() Is Broken

https://mathspp.com/blog/max-is-broken

by BerislavLopac • 3 years ago

1 3 3 years ago

MA

Related Stories

Loading related stories...

Comments

3

dekhn• 3 years ago

I wonder what would happen if you modified the interpreter to do this by default, and then ran a comprehensive test suite across a wide range of commonly used packages.

At the very least it would be intersting to find code that calls max([]).

timfi• 3 years ago

Imho this is a non-issue. Python's max-function isn't limited to numerical values, but can consume iterables of anything with a defined order, i.e., things that implement the appropriate hooks in the Python data model. For such inputs, returning anything but an error (or the optionally provided default value) doesn't make much sense.

hwayne• 3 years ago

I think one potential downside of this is you no longer have `max(l) in l` for all lists.

Source preview

mathspp.com

HNGlance

© 2024-2026 HN Glance. Story content belongs to its original sources.

Privacy
Terms