If None gets ignored, what about iterables that mix numbers and strings? A comprehension handles the simple case relatively succinctly and also handles more complex cases.

max(x for x in iterable if isinstance(x, (int, float)))

If you prefer

is_number = lambda obj: isinstance(obj, numbers.Number)

max(filter(is_number, iterable))

On Tue, Dec 29, 2015 at 6:02 PM Gerald Britton <gerald.britton@gmail.com> wrote:

On Tue Dec 29 06:22:58 EST 2015, Stephen D'Aprano wrote:

So that's three perfectly reasonable behaviours: max(x, None) is an error and should raise;
max(x, None) ignores None and returns x;
max(x, None) is unknown or missing and returns None
(or some other sentinel representing NA/Missing/Unknown).

For comparison's sake, SQL ignores NULL when doing MAX:

e.g.

select max(val)
from (values (1),(null)) v(val)

returns

1

In Python, None is sorta-kinda a bit like NULL in SQL, so one could make the argument that None should be handled similarly in min and max. OTOH I wouldn't want to see Python implement 3-valued logic.

--
Gerald Britton, MCSE-DP, MVP
LinkedIn Profile: http://ca.linkedin.com/in/geraldbritton

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