how to find the middle number in python

Question

Given 3 numbers, I need to find which number lies between the two others.

ie,given 3,5,2 I need 3 to be returned.

I tried to implement this by going thru all three and using if else conditions to check if each is between the other two.But this seems a naive way to do this.Is there a better way?

Answer 1

Put them in a list, sort them, pick the middle one.

Answer 2

>>> x = [1,3,2]
>>> sorted(x)[len(x) // 2]
2

Answer 3

The fastest obvious way for three numbers

def mean3(a, b, c):
    if a <= b <= c or c <= b <= a:
        return b
    elif b <= a <= c or c <= a <= b:
        return a
    else:
        return c