sum, min, max only works with iterable

[Fade78]

BPO	14451
Nosy	@bitdancer

^{Note: these values reflect the state of the issue at the time it was migrated and might not reflect the current state.}

Show more details

GitHub fields:

assignee = None
closed_at = <Date 2012-03-30.14:21:58.927>
created_at = <Date 2012-03-30.10:18:26.249>
labels = ['type-bug']
title = 'sum, min, max only works with iterable'
updated_at = <Date 2012-03-30.14:21:58.925>
user = 'https://bugs.python.org/Fade78'

bugs.python.org fields:

activity = <Date 2012-03-30.14:21:58.925>
actor = 'r.david.murray'
assignee = 'none'
closed = True
closed_date = <Date 2012-03-30.14:21:58.927>
closer = 'r.david.murray'
components = ['None']
creation = <Date 2012-03-30.10:18:26.249>
creator = 'Fade78'
dependencies = []
files = []
hgrepos = []
issue_num = 14451
keywords = []
message_count = 2.0
messages = ['157133', '157137']
nosy_count = 2.0
nosy_names = ['r.david.murray', 'Fade78']
pr_nums = []
priority = 'normal'
resolution = 'rejected'
stage = 'resolved'
status = 'closed'
superseder = None
type = 'behavior'
url = 'https://bugs.python.org/issue14451'
versions = ['Python 3.2']

[Fade78]

The built-in functions working with iterable should also work with single object that is relevent.

For example:
max([1,6,5]) -> 6
max(6) -> TypeError because not an iterable (actual behavior)
max(6) -> 6 (wanted pythonic behavior)

So if I write a generic function like this:

def f(x):
    totalsum+=sum(x)

it fails if x is not an iterable. But I want the argument to be anything possible. Using if(type) to separate use cases is not very pythonic.

[bitdancer]

The current behavior is how we want the functions to work. If you want to debate the design, the best forum would probably be python-ideas.