Question

I was just bitten by the following scenario:

>>> -1 ** 2
-1

Now, digging through the Python docs, it’s clear that this is intended behavior, but why? I don’t work with any other languages with power as a builtin operator, but not having unary negation bind as tightly as possible seems dangerously counter-intuitive to me.

Is there a reason it was done this way? Do other languages with power operators behave similarly?

Answer 1

That behaviour is the same as in math formulas, so I am not sure what the problem is, or why it is counter-intuitive. Can you explain where have you seen something different? “**” always bind more than “-“: -x^2 is not the same as (-x)^2

Just use (-1) ** 2, exactly as you’d do in math.