Max function question: How do I return the index of the maximum value of a list?

[jj_frap]

I'm new to programming in Python and am currently writing a three-card
poker simulator. I have completed the entire simulator other than
determining who has the best hand (which will be far more difficult
than the aspects I've codes thus far)...I store each player's hand in a
list of hand objects and I determine hand strength via a handstrength
list with one element for each player.

When I try to print the "winner" (I've not coded for kicker strength
and ties yet) via the max function, it returns the maximum value in the
list rather than the index associated with that value.

How do I return the index?

 

[Sybren Stuvel]

jj_frap enlightened us with:

When I try to print the "winner" (I've not coded for kicker strength
and ties yet) via the max function, it returns the maximum value in
the list rather than the index associated with that value.

How do I return the index?

You can't even be sure it exists - there might be multiple maximum
values. What would you expect in such a case?

Sybren

 

[gene tani]

I'm new to programming in Python and am currently writing a three-card
poker simulator. I have completed the entire simulator other than
determining who has the best hand (which will be far more difficult
than the aspects I've codes thus far)...I store each player's hand in a
list of hand objects and I determine hand strength via a handstrength
list with one element for each player.

When I try to print the "winner" (I've not coded for kicker strength
and ties yet) via the max function, it returns the maximum value in the
list rather than the index associated with that value.

How do I return the index?

http://aspn.activestate.com/ASPN/Cookbook/Python/Recipe/306862
http://www.rubyquiz.com/quiz24.html

 

[Erik Max Francis]

http://www.rubyquiz.com/quiz24.html

His question was for three-card poker, not normal poker. The ranking of
hands in three-card poker isn't the same as in normal best five-card
poker rankings; for instance, in three-card poker, a straight beats a flush.

 

[Steven Bethard]

I'm new to programming in Python and am currently writing a three-card
poker simulator. I have completed the entire simulator other than
determining who has the best hand (which will be far more difficult
than the aspects I've codes thus far)...I store each player's hand in a
list of hand objects and I determine hand strength via a handstrength
list with one element for each player.

When I try to print the "winner" (I've not coded for kicker strength
and ties yet) via the max function, it returns the maximum value in the
list rather than the index associated with that value.

How do I return the index?

Can you do something like::

max_val, max_index = max((x, i) for i, x in enumerate(my_list))

? If any two "x" values are equal, this will return the one with the
lower index. Don't know if that matters to you.

STeVe

 

[Robert Kern]

Can you do something like::

max_val, max_index = max((x, i) for i, x in enumerate(my_list))

? If any two "x" values are equal, this will return the one with the
lower index. Don't know if that matters to you.

Wouldn't it return the one with the highest index?

--
Robert Kern

"I have come to believe that the whole world is an enigma, a harmless enigma
that is made terrible by our own mad attempt to interpret it as though it had
an underlying truth."
-- Umberto Eco

 

[Steven Bethard]

Wouldn't it return the one with the highest index?

Yes sorry. Mentally switched my min and max calls.

Thanks for the catch.

Steve