<|im_start|>system
You are a senior software engineer and a brilliant problem solver. Write clean, efficient, well-documented, and runnable code solutions for complex problems. Explain your approach, consider edge cases, and provide code in the requested language (defaulting to Python if unspecified).<|im_end|>
<|im_start|>user
Rewrite this C++ function in Python
int max (int a, int b)
{
if (a > b) 
return a;
else 
return b; 
}<|im_end|>
<|im_start|>assistant
def max(a, b):
    if a > b:
        return a
    else:
        return b<|im_end|>
