The docs say:
If no
__cmp__()
,__eq__()
or__ne__()
operation is defined, class instances are compared by object identity (“address”).
However, this isn’t entirely accurate. It’s accurate for classic classes, but new-style classes (the default in Python 3) are first compared by their type names (and then by their type IDs if their type names are identical). I don’t know why this is done, but I noticed this behavior while writing an autograder for the class I’m TAing.
From the file Objects/object.c in Python 2.6:
/* Final fallback 3-way comparison, returning an int. Return:
-2 if an error occurred;
-1 if v < w;
0 if v == w;
1 if v > w.
*/
static int
default_3way_compare(PyObject *v, PyObject *w)
{
int c;
const char *vname, *wname;
if (v->ob_type == w->ob_type) {
/* When comparing these pointers, they must be cast to
* integer types (i.e. Py_uintptr_t, our spelling of C9X's
* uintptr_t). ANSI specifies that pointer compares other
* than == and != to non-related structures are undefined.
*/
Py_uintptr_t vv = (Py_uintptr_t)v;
Py_uintptr_t ww = (Py_uintptr_t)w;
return (vv < ww) ? -1 : (vv > ww) ? 1 : 0;
}
/* None is smaller than anything */
if (v == Py_None)
return -1;
if (w == Py_None)
return 1;
/* different type: compare type names; numbers are smaller */
if (PyNumber_Check(v))
vname = "";
else
vname = v->ob_type->tp_name;
if (PyNumber_Check(w))
wname = "";
else
wname = w->ob_type->tp_name;
c = strcmp(vname, wname);
if (c < 0)
return -1;
if (c > 0)
return 1;
/* Same type name, or (more likely) incomparable numeric types */
return ((Py_uintptr_t)(v->ob_type) < (
Py_uintptr_t)(w->ob_type)) ? -1 : 1;
}
Thanks to Szymon for the discussion.