CodeQL documentation

Incomplete ordering

ID: py/incomplete-ordering
Kind: problem
Security severity: 
Severity: warning
Precision: very-high
Tags:
   - reliability
   - correctness
Query suites:
   - python-security-and-quality.qls

Click to see the query in the CodeQL repository

A class that implements an ordering operator (__lt__, __gt__, __le__ or __ge__) should implement all four in order that ordering between two objects is consistent and obeys the usual mathematical rules. If the ordering is inconsistent with default equality, then __eq__ and __ne__ should also be implemented.

Recommendation

Ensure that all four ordering comparisons are implemented as well as __eq__ and __ne__ if required.

It is not necessary to manually implement all four comparisons, the functools.total_ordering class decorator can be used.

Example

In this example only the __lt__ operator has been implemented which could lead to inconsistent behavior. __gt__, __le__, __ge__, and in this case, __eq__ and __ne__ should be implemented.

class IncompleteOrdering(object):
    def __init__(self, i):
        self.i = i

    def __lt__(self, other):
        return self.i < other.i

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