Alternative to passing Greater Than sign as an argument

My function :

def check(list,num):

  check if there is list[x] > list[0]+num  # in case num is positive
  OR if there is list[x] < list[0]+num  # in case num is negative

So I can send 50 to check if we are up 50, or -50 to check if we are down 50.

The only way I see to do this is ugly :

  for x in list:
    if num > 0 :
       if x > list[0] + num : do something
    if num < 0 :
       if x < list[0] + num : do something

Since i can not send > as an argument and use a single line, I am looking for a more elegant way.

>Solution :

If you are trying to pass the comparison function as an argument you can use the operator module

import operator
operator.lt  #  <
operator.gt  #  >
operator.le  #  <=
operator.ge  #  >=

In your case you could refactor to

def function(comparison):
  for x in values:
    if comparison(num, 0) and comparison(x, values[0] + num):
      # do something

then you could call it as

function(operator.lt)  # positive check
function(operator.gt)  # negative check