Why are these results so different when using Python's "float" function?
converters, floating-point, math, python, type-conversion
Solution
What you probably missed is docs on how multiplication works on strings. Your `tangibles` list contains strings. `tangibles[1]` is a string. `tangibles[1]*1000` is that string repeated 1000 times. Calling `float` or `long` on that string interprets it as a number, creating a huge number. If you instead do `float(tangibles[1])`, you only get the actual number, not the number repeated 1000 times.
What you are seeing is just the same as what goes on in this example:
>>> x = '1'
>>> x
'1'
>>> x*10
'1111111111'
>>> float(x)
1.0
>>> float(x*10)
1111111111.0
Problem
My Python code was doing something strange to me (or my numbers, rather): a) ``` float(poverb.tangibles[1])*1000 1038277000.0 ``` b) ``` float(poverb.tangibles[1]*1000) inf ``` Which led to discovering that: ``` long(poverb.tangibles[1]*1000) ``` produces the largest number I've ever seen. Uhhh, I didn't read the whole Python tutorial or it's doc. Did I miss something critical about how `float` works? EDIT: ``` >>> poverb.tangibles[1] u'1038277' ```