Python Programming with the Java™ Class Libraries: A Tutorial for Building Web and Enterprise Applications with Jython

Operations

This section deals mostly with functions that are longhand for operators.

Numeric Operations: cmp(), divmod(), pow(), abs(), round()

cmp(x,y) compares two numeric types. It also works for sequences, dictionaries, and other numeric objects. cmp() returns a positive number if the x argument is greater than the y argument, a negative number if the y argument is greater than the x argument, and 0 if x and y are equal.

>>> cmp(1,0)
1

>>> cmp(0,1)
-1

>>> cmp(0,0)
0

cmp() is related to the equality operators (==, >=, <=, etc.). If you want these operators to work with class instances, you need to implement cmp() for the class by executing cmp(instance1, instance2), instance1 == instance2, or instance1 > instance2).

The divmod() function ...