Built-in Functions

Standard Type Functions

cmp()

As with the value comparison operators, the cmp() built-in function also performs a lexicographic comparison for strings.

							
>>> str1 = 'abc'
>>> str2 = 'lmn'
>>> str3 = 'xyz'
>>> cmp(str1, str2)
-11
>>> cmp(str3, str1)
23
>>> cmp(str2, 'lmn')
0

						

Sequence Type Functions

len()

							
>>> str1 = 'abc'
>>> len(str1)
3
>>> len('Hello World!')
12

						

The len() built-in function returns the number of characters in the string as expected.

max() and min()

							
>>> str2 = 'lmn'
>>> str3 = 'xyz'
>>> max(str2)
'n'
>>> min(str3)
'x'

						

Although more useful with other sequence types, the max() and min() built-in functions do operate as advertised, returning the greatest and least characters (lexicographic order), respectively.

String Type Function [raw_input()]

The built-in raw_input() function prompts the user with a given string and accepts and returns a user-input string. Here is an example using raw_input():

						
>>> user_input = raw_input("Enter your name: ")
Enter your name: John Doe
>>>
>>> user_input
'John Doe'
>>>
>>> len(user_input)
8

					

Earlier, we indicated that strings in Python do not have a terminating NUL character like C strings. We added in the extra call to len() to show you that what you see is what you get.