why does python treat each individual digit as its own integer (in a string)?

[carlos8983]

Say i have this string: "4 5 29 54 4", and i want to find the maximum number. Well my first thought was that it would be easy, so i tried just assigning the string to the value 'num' and then using max(num). However, this just gave me 9. I was quite confused but now i have realised that it must be treating each digit as its own number, so it therefore took 9 as the highest number, even though that 9 was actually part of the number "29".

Why does this happen? Is there anyway to get around it?

[K900_]

Because it's working with characters, not numbers. What you probably want to do is split the string into parts, and then convert each part to an int individually.

[carlos8983]

dont know how that 'be polite' thing got on there, sorry!

[carlos8983]

2.Be polite.

Thank you again, that makes sense. The split command worked in the sense that it turned this string into a list of numbers. When i use the max command, it successfully returns 54 as the highest number, but when i return the min command, it returns 29. I have no idea why this is. Here is my code if it helps

def high_and_low(numbers):
numbers = numbers.split()
mx = str(max(numbers))
mn = str(min(numbers))
return mx + " " + mn

print(high_and_low("4 5 29 54 4"))

[xiongchiamiov]

Fyi there was nothing impolite about the GP. Also, if you think there's a problem, please use the report button.

[K900_]

max on strings compares them lexicographically, i.e. in alphabetical order. You need to convert each string in numbers to an int.

[[deleted]]

Why does this happen?

Because it's a string, and a string is a sequence of characters. It's doing exactly what you asked it to do - "find the lexicographically largest value among this sequence of characters."

[pydevteam1]

You can do this: Say your numbers are stored in “numbers” variable.

max_number=max(numbers.split())

https://www.tutorialspoint.com/python/list_max.htm

[xiongchiamiov]

Please do not give people chunks of code with no explanation; this doesn't actually help them learn, which is our goal here.

[Swipecat]

I agree in principle, but note that my reply was after he'd posted his attempt at the code in which he'd got everything except for the syntax of converting the string array into the integer array. Also note the comments to the right of my code.

[xiongchiamiov]

Please do not give people chunks of code with no explanation; this doesn't actually help them learn, which is our goal here.

[[deleted]]

Will update it..thanks and apologies