best way to compare contents of 2 lists?

[Steven D'Aprano]

On Fri, 24 Apr 2009 10:39:39 -0700, norseman wrote:

> Technically, ==  is reserved for identical, as in byte for byte same

Really? Then how do you explain these?

>>> u'abc' == 'abc'
True
>>> 1 == 1.0
True
>>> 2L == 2
True
>>>
>>> import decimal
>>> decimal.Decimal('42') == 42
True


Here's one to think about:

>>> d1 = {-1: None, -2: None}
>>> d2 = {-2: None, -1: None}
>>> print d1, d2
{-2: None, -1: None} {-1: None, -2: None}
>>> d1 == d2
True

If d1 and d2 are equal and both are dictionaries with the same keys and 
same values, why do they print in different orders?



-- 
Steven