Steven D'Aprano <steve+pyt...@pearwood.info> added the comment:
Thanks Raymond for the interesting use-case. The original design of mode() was support only the basic form taught in secondary schools, namely a single unique mode for categorical data or discrete numerical data. I think it is time to consider a richer interface to support more uses, such as estimating the mode of continuous numerical data, and the multi-mode case you bring up. One reason I've been hesitant is that deciding what is the right behaviour is quite hard (or at least it has been for me). I think there are a few cases to consider: - the existing behaviour (which may not be very useful?) which is to raise an exception unless the mode is unique; - would it be more useful to return an out-of-band value like a NAN or None? - the multi-mode case where you want some arbitrary(?) mode, possibly the left-most (smallest) for numeric data; - the multi-mode case where you want all the modes. I like Francis' suggestion to use an enum to select the behavioural, er, mode (pun intended). What do you think? ---------- _______________________________________ Python tracker <rep...@bugs.python.org> <https://bugs.python.org/issue35892> _______________________________________ _______________________________________________ Python-bugs-list mailing list Unsubscribe: https://mail.python.org/mailman/options/python-bugs-list/archive%40mail-archive.com
