How to compare Enums in Python?

Since Python 3.4, the Enum class exists.

I am writing a program, where some constants have a specific order and I wonder which way is the most pythonic to compare them:

class Information(Enum):
    ValueOnly = 0
    FirstDerivative = 1
    SecondDerivative = 2

Now there is a method, which needs to compare a given information of Information with the different enums:

information = Information.FirstDerivative
print(value)
if information >= Information.FirstDerivative:
    print(jacobian)
if information >= Information.SecondDerivative:
    print(hessian)

The direct comparison does not work with Enums, so there are three approaches and I wonder which one is preferred:

Approach 1: Use values:

if information.value >= Information.FirstDerivative.value:
     ...

Approach 2: Use IntEnum:

class Information(IntEnum):
    ...

Approach 3: Not using Enums at all:

class Information:
    ValueOnly = 0
    FirstDerivative = 1
    SecondDerivative = 2

Each approach works, Approach 1 is a bit more verbose, while Approach 2 uses the not recommended IntEnum-class, while and Approach 3 seems to be the way one did this before Enum was added.

I tend to use Approach 1, but I am not sure.

Thanks for any advise!

You should always implement the rich comparison operaters if you want to use them with an Enum. Using the functools.total_ordering class decorator, you only need to implement an __eq__ method along with a single ordering, e.g. __lt__. Since enum.Enum already implements __eq__ this becomes even easier:

>>> import enum
>>> from functools import total_ordering
>>> @total_ordering
... class Grade(enum.Enum):
...   A = 5
...   B = 4
...   C = 3
...   D = 2
...   F = 1
...   def __lt__(self, other):
...     if self.__class__ is other.__class__:
...       return self.value < other.value
...     return NotImplemented
... 
>>> Grade.A >= Grade.B
True
>>> Grade.A >= 3
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "<stdin>", line 1, in <module>
TypeError: unorderable types: Grade() >= int()

Terrible, horrible, ghastly things can happen with IntEnum. It was mostly included for backwards-compatibility sake, enums used to be implemented by subclassing int. From the docs:

> For the vast majority of code, Enum is strongly recommended, since > IntEnum breaks some semantic promises of an enumeration (by being > comparable to integers, and thus by transitivity to other unrelated > enumerations). It should be used only in special cases where there’s > no other choice; for example, when integer constants are replaced with > enumerations and backwards compatibility is required with code that > still expects integers.

Here's an example of why you don't want to do this:

>>> class GradeNum(enum.IntEnum):
...   A = 5
...   B = 4
...   C = 3
...   D = 2
...   F = 1
... 
>>> class Suit(enum.IntEnum):
...   spade = 4
...   heart = 3
...   diamond = 2
...   club = 1
... 
>>> GradeNum.A >= GradeNum.B
True
>>> GradeNum.A >= 3
True
>>> GradeNum.B == Suit.spade
True
>>> 

I hadn'r encountered Enum before so I scanned the doc (https://docs.python.org/3/library/enum.html) ... and found OrderedEnum (section 8.13.13.2) Isn't this what you want? From the doc:

>>> class Grade(OrderedEnum):
...     A = 5
...     B = 4
...     C = 3
...     D = 2
...     F = 1
...
>>> Grade.C < Grade.A
True

Combining some of the above ideas, you can subclass enum.Enum to make it comparable to string/numbers and then build your enums on this class instead:

import numbers
import enum


class EnumComparable(enum.Enum):
    def __gt__(self, other):
        try:
            return self.value > other.value
        except:
            pass
        try:
            if isinstance(other, numbers.Real):
                return self.value > other
        except:
            pass
        return NotImplemented

    def __lt__(self, other):
        try:
            return self.value < other.value
        except:
            pass
        try:
            if isinstance(other, numbers.Real):
                return self.value < other
        except:
            pass
        return NotImplemented

    def __ge__(self, other):
        try:
            return self.value >= other.value
        except:
            pass
        try:
            if isinstance(other, numbers.Real):
                return self.value >= other
            if isinstance(other, str):
                return self.name == other
        except:
            pass
        return NotImplemented

    def __le__(self, other):
        try:
            return self.value <= other.value
        except:
            pass
        try:
            if isinstance(other, numbers.Real):
                return self.value <= other
            if isinstance(other, str):
                return self.name == other
        except:
            pass
        return NotImplemented

    def __eq__(self, other):
        if self.__class__ is other.__class__:
            return self == other
        try:
            return self.value == other.value
        except:
            pass
        try:
            if isinstance(other, numbers.Real):
                return self.value == other
            if isinstance(other, str):
                return self.name == other
        except:
            pass
        return NotImplemented

You can create a simple decorator to resolve this too:

from enum import Enum
from functools import total_ordering

def enum_ordering(cls):
    def __lt__(self, other):
        if type(other) == type(self):
            return self.value < other.value

        raise ValueError("Cannot compare different Enums")

    setattr(cls, '__lt__', __lt__)
    return total_ordering(cls)


@enum_ordering
class Foos(Enum):
    a = 1
    b = 3
    c = 2

assert Names.a < Names.c
assert Names.c < Names.b
assert Names.a != Foos.a
assert Names.a < Foos.c # Will raise a ValueError

For bonus points you could implement the other methods in @VoteCoffee's answer above

for those who want to use the == with two enum instances like that: enum_instance_1 == enum_instance_2

just add the __eq__ method in your Enum class as follows:

def __eq__(self, other):
    return self.__class__ is other.__class__ and other.value == self.value