I have a Python question about Merge Sort. I have this code for merge sort and I'm trying to sort a text file with random strings but it gives an error( line 66, in merge if L[i] <= R[j]: TypeError: '<=' not supported between instances of 'str' and 'int') How do I fix this error?

import sys
	def merge_sort(A):
	merge_sort2(A, 0, len(A)-1)
	def merge_sort2(A, first, last):
	if first < last:
	middle = (first + last)//2
	merge_sort2(A, first, middle)
	merge_sort2(A, middle+1, last)
	merge(A, first, middle, last)
	def merge(A, first, middle, last):
	L = A[first:middle+1]
	R = A[middle+1:last+1]
	L.append(sys.maxsize)
	R.append(sys.maxsize)
	i = j = 0
	for k in range (first, last+1):
	if L[i] <= R[j]:
	A[k] = L[i]
	i += 1
	else:
	A[k] = R[j]
	j += 1
	A = [5,9,1,2,4,8,6,3,7]
	print(A)
	merge_sort(A)
	print(A)