Is there a way to return a custom value for min and max in Python? -

i have custom class,

class a:     def __init__(self, a, b):         self.a =         self.b = b 

the class not iterable or indexable or that. if @ possible, keep way. possible have following work?

>>> x = a(1, 2) >>> min(x) 1 >>> max(x) 2 

what got me thinking min , max listed "common sequence operations" in docs. since range considered sequence type same docs, thinking there must sort of optimization possible range, , perhaps take advantage of it.

perhaps there magic method not aware of enable this?

yes. when min takes 1 arguments assumes iterable, iterates on , takes minimum value. so,

class a:     def __init__(self, a, b):         self.a =         self.b = b     def __iter__(self):         yield self.a         yield self.b 

should work.

additional note: if don't want use __iter__, don't know of way that. want create own min function, calls __min__ method if there 1 in argument passed , calls old min else.

oldmin = min def min( *args )   if len(args) == 1 , hasattr( args[0], '__min__' ):     return args[0].__min__()   else:     return oldmin( *args )