Why is Max() method not returning the larger value?

Question

numbers = '1 2 4 67 123 146 1024 1982'.split()
print(max(numbers))

Answer 1

Martial Law ,

after splitting the input string, the elements of list 'numbers' are still strings. so the element starting with the highest digit will be returned by the max() function.

if you wanted to make the elements of the list as int numbers, you can use map() function:

numbers = list(map(int, '1 2 4 67 123 146 1024 1982'.split()))

Answer 2

It returning 67 which is larger according to alphabetical order.
'numbers' there is a list of string type so it will work on sorting by lexicographical order.

Answer 3

Hi Martial!
The reason it's not returning the largest value is because split() method returns list of strings not integers.
You may try this
print(numbers)

You can use key (optional argument of max() )to compare the items by their integer value.

print(max(numbers, key = int))
Output: 1982