How to use cmp() in Python 3?

I cannot get the command cmp() to work.

Here is the code:

a = [1,2,3]
b = [1,2,3]
c = cmp(a,b)
print (c)

I am getting the error:

Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "G:\Dropbox\Code\a = [1,2,3]", line 3, in <module>
    c = cmp(a,b)
 NameError: name 'cmp' is not defined
[Finished in 0.1s]

As mentioned in the comments, cmp doesn't exist in Python 3. If you really want it, you could define it yourself:

def cmp(a, b):
    return (a > b) - (a < b)

which is taken from the original What's New In Python 3.0. It's pretty rare -- though not unheard of -- that it's really needed, though, so you might want to think about whether it's actually the best way to do whatever it is you're up to.

In Python 3.x you can import operator and use operator module's eq(), lt(), etc... instead of cmp()

When the sign is needed, probably safest alternative is using math.copysign:

import math
ang = -2
# alternative for cmp(ang, 0):
math.copysign(1, ang)

# Result: -1

In particular if ang is of np.float64 type because of depreciation of the '-' operator. Example:

import numpy as np

def cmp_0(a, b):
    return (a > b) - (a < b)

ang = np.float64(-2)
cmp_0(ang, 0)

# Result:
# DeprecationWarning: numpy boolean subtract, the `-` operator, is deprecated, 
# use the bitwise_xor, the `^` operator, or the logical_xor function instead.

instead one could use:

def cmp_0(a, b):
    return bool(a > b) - bool(a < b)

ang = np.float64(-2)
cmp(ang, 0)
# Result: -1

How to use cmp() in Python 3?

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