Introduction to Python Compare Strings
In Python, there are no specific data types for either of the variables if it is numeric or string or character. A single character is also considered as a string and it can be declared within double or single quotes. In general, the string is defined as a set of characters or characters within single or double-quotes. In Python, the string has any operations and functions on it such as concatenation, slicing, comparison, len(), max(), min(), etc. In this article, we are discussing the comparison of strings Python.
Many operators are used in performing the comparison of strings such as equality operator (= =), comparison operators like (<, >, <=, >=, !, !=). The simple logic in comparison of strings is that characters are compared to both the strings and it will check the character with lower Unicode and is considered as smaller value character or larger value character or equal value character, etc. In this topic, we are going to learn about Python Compare Strings.
How Does String Comparison Work in Python?
In Python, strings use the ASCII value of characters for comparison. Python uses the objects with the same values in memory which makes comparing objects faster. Some basic comparison operator is equal to (= =) and ‘is’ operator. Now let see the example for each of these operators below.
1. The most commonly used comparison operator is equal to (==)
This operator is used when we want to compare two string variables. This can be done using if statement with equal to (= =) operator.
Syntax:
if string_variable1 = = string_variable2
true
else
false
Example #1
str1 = 'Educba'
str2 = 'Educba'
if str1 == str2:
print("Strings are same")
else:
print("Strings are different")
Output:
Example #2
str1 = 'Educba'
str2 = 'Educba training'
if str1 == str2:
print("Strings are same")
else:
print("Strings are different")
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The above screenshot is for the above code which uses equal to (==) operator which checks the strings are the same or different.
‘is’ operator is also used for comparison of strings. ‘is’ and equal to (= =) operators are not the same because ‘is’ operator compares two string variables based on the object id it returns true if same string else false if strings are not same.
Syntax:
string_variable1 is string_variable
Example #3
a = 2
b = 1
c = 2
if a is c:
print("Same")
else:
print("Different")
Output:
2. Not equal to (!=) operator
This operator is used to check the not same string variables. This can be done using equal to operator also as shown above.
Example #1
str1 = 'Educba'
str2 = 'Educba'
if str1 != str2:
print("Strings are different")
else:
print("Strings are same")
Output:
Example #2
str1 = 'Educba'
str2 = 'Educba training'
if str1 != str2:
print("Strings are different")
else:
print("Strings are same")
In all the above operators the though the strings are the same then what to do if the order is different to avoid this we need to first sort the strings and then use it for comparison. This scenario is used when we know that two given string variables are the same but their order is different and yet you want the code to print that they are the same strings to do this you need to first use sort function and then compare the given strings.
Syntax:
sorted (string_variable1) = = sorted (string_variable2)
Example #3
a = 'Educba training'
b = 'training Educba '
if sorted(a) == sorted(b):
print("Same")
else:
print("Not Same")
Output:
3. Greater than (>) and lesser than (<)
These are also used for comparing two strings. These operators use the Unicode values of both the strings to compare each of them accordingly.
Syntax:
string_variable1 > string_variable2
string_variable1 < string_variable2
Example #1
str1 = 'Educba training'
str2 = 'Educba '
if str1 > str2:
print("True")
else:
print("False")
Output:
If the above code has some strings then it will print as false because either of the string is smaller or greater.
Example #2
str1 = 'Educba'
str2 = 'Educba'
if str1 > str2:
print("True")
else:
print("False")
Output:
4. Greater than or equal to ( >=) operator
This operator is used to compare the strings in which first string is greater or equal to the second string then it gives true else false.
Example #1
str1 = 'Educba training'
str2 = 'Educba '
if str1 >= str2:
print("True")
else:
print("False")
Output:
Below is the screenshot for the string 1 is greater than string 2
Example #2
str1 = 'Educba '
str2 = 'Educba '
if str1 >= str2:
print("True")
else:
print("False")
Output:
Below is the screenshot for the string 1 is equal to string 2
Example #3
str1 = 'Edu '
str2 = 'Educba '
if str1 >= str2:
print("True")
else:
print("False")
Output:
Below is the screenshot for which the string1 is smaller than string 2 so it will give false as we are checking for greater than or equal to the string1.
5. less than or equal to (<=)
This also works the same as greater than or equal to but it will check for the string with lower Unicode among the given strings to compare.
Syntax:
string_variable1 <= string_variable2
Example #1
str1 = 'Edu '
str2 = 'Educba '
if str1 <= str2:
print("True")
else:
print("False")
Output:
The below screenshot is for the less than operator to compare whether string1 is less than string 2 the it returns true else false.
Example #2
str1 = 'Edu '
str2 = 'Edu '
if str1 <= str2:
print("True")
else:
print("False")
Output:
The below screenshot is for equal to the operator with less than operator this also yields true if both given strings have the same Unicode values else it will false.
If the string 1 is having higher Unicode value than string 2 then it will return false as we are using less than or equal to operator.
Example #3
str1 = 'Educba '
str2 = 'Edu '
if str1 <= str2:
print("True")
else:
print("False")
Output:
Conclusion – Python Compare Strings
In Python, strings are defined as a set of characters where each character has a different Unicode value or ASCII value. There are many different operators which are used to compare the strings such as equal to (= =) operator, not equal to (!=) operator, greater than (>) operator, less than (<) operator, greater than or equal to operator (>=) and less than or equal to (<=) operator. There is another operator that is similar to equal to (= =) operator for comparison of strings known as ‘is’ operator which usually compares the object id of the given strings instead of Unicode values.
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This is a guide to Python Compare Strings. Here we discuss How does string comparison works in Python along with the examples of each operator. You may also have a look at the following articles to learn more –
