x = 1e20 # must be big enough that LSB > 1 y = long(x) + 1 assert long(x)-y != 0 assert x-float(y) == 0 v = [x, y] v.sort() w = v[:] w.reverse() w.sort() assert v == w assert type(v[0]) == type(w[0]) assert type(v[1]) == type(v[1])