finding the median item in a list

[benefits2072]

lets say i have this list:
numbers = ['4', '3.2', '3.1', '3.15', '20', '3', '4', '17', '8']

and i want my script to tell me that the highest number in the list is '20'

how can i do that?

what if you wanted to find a number in the middle of that list: how would you go about that?

[bartonc]

what if you wanted to find a number in the middle of that list: how would you go about that?

Here's one way:

>>> numbers = ('4', '3.2', '3.1', '3.15', '20', '3', '4', '17', '8')
>>> floatList = sorted([float(x) for x in numbers])
>>> floatList
[3.0, 3.1000000000000001, 3.1499999999999999, 3.2000000000000002, 4.0, 4.0, 8.0, 17.0, 20.0]
>>> average = sum(floatList)//len(floatList)
>>> average
7.0
>>> for i, item in enumerate(floatList):
...     if item > average:
...         print "%f is between %f and %f" %(average, item, floatList[i + 1])
...         break 
7.000000 is between 8.000000 and 17.000000
>>> 

[bartonc]

what if you wanted to find a number in the middle of that list: how would you go about that?

Or, if all you want is the number closest in position to the middle, then it's:

>>> print floatList[len(floatList)/2]
4.0
>>>