python3 Why does max( listOfStrings) not return the longest element?

Asked Aug 03 '15 at 19:10

Active Aug 03 '15 at 19:10

Viewed 33 times

Im new to python. just started learning. but experimenting with it and with max() i now got stuck a bit. See this example:

list=["hello Wold", "hy", "xx", "ccc"]
max(list)

it returns

'xx'

help(max) tells me that given a single iterable argument its supposed to return its largest item. So i would expect to get the "longest" item back.

why is it not returning the longest item in the list?

tanks for help

asked Aug 03 '15 at 19:10

Axel Werner

1

Why would it? `max(list, key=len)` would, but `'hello world' > 'hy'` is not true. – Martijn Pieters Aug 03 '15 at 19:12
If you were to sort your list of strings, what would come first and what would come last? It is *that* order that `max()` looks at. – Martijn Pieters Aug 03 '15 at 19:14
thanks for the duplicate info. i searched the site, but didnt found that solution myself. but it contains the 100% solution to me. thanks! – Axel Werner Aug 03 '15 at 19:19

0 Answers0