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Get Started Now!Comparison operators in Python are very important in Python’s conditional statements (if, else and elif) and looping statements (while and for loops). Like arithmetic operators, the comparison operators "-" also called relational operators, ("<" stands for less than, and">" stands for greater than) are well known.
Python uses two more operators, combining "=" symbol with these two. The "<=" symbol is for less than or equal to. The ">=" symbol is for greater than or equal to.
Python has two more comparison operators in the form of "==" and "!=". They are for is equal to and is not equal to operators. Hence, there are six comparison operators in Python.
| < | Less than | a<b |
| > | Greater than | a>b |
| <= | Less than or equal to | a<=b |
| >= | Greater than or equal to | a>=b |
| == | Is equal to | a==b |
| != | Is not equal to | a!=b |
Comparison operators are binary in nature, requiring two operands. An expression involving a comparison operator is called a Boolean expression, and always returns either True or False.
It will produce the following output −
False True
Both the operands may be Python literals, variables or expressions. Since Python supports mixed arithmetic, you can have any number type operands.
The following code demonstrates the use of Python’s comparison operators with integer numbers −
It will produce the following output −
Both operands are integer a= 5 b= 7 a>b is False a= 5 b= 7 a<b is True a= 5 b= 7 a==b is False a= 5 b= 7 a!=b is True
Comparison of Float Number
In the following example, an integer and a float operand are compared.
It will produce the following output −
comparison of int and float a= 10 b= 10.0 a>b is False a= 10 b= 10.0 a<b is False a= 10 b= 10.0 a==b is True a= 10 b= 10.0 a!=b is False
Comparison of Complex umbers
Although complex object is a number data type in Python, its behavior is different from others. Python doesn’t support < and > operators, however it does support equality (==) and inequality (!=) operators.
It will produce the following output −
comparison of complex numbers a= (10+1j) b= (10-1j) a==b is False a= (10+1j) b= (10-1j) a!=b is True
You get a TypeError with less than or greater than operators.
It will produce the following output −
comparison of complex numbers
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "C:\Users\mlath\examples\example.py", line 5, in <module>
print ("a=",a, "b=",b,"a<b is",a<b)
^^^
TypeError: '<' not supported between instances of 'complex' and
'complex
Comparison of Booleans
Boolean objects in Python are really integers: True is 1 and False is 0. In fact, Python treats any non-zero number as True. In Python, comparison of Boolean objects is possible. "False < True" is True!
It will produce the following output −
comparison of Booleans a= True b= False a<b is False a= True b= False a>b is True a= True b= False a==b is False a= True b= False a!=b is True
Comparison of Sequence Types
In Python, comparison of only similar sequence objects can be performed. A string object is comparable with another string only. A list cannot be compared with a tuple, even if both have same items.
It will produce the following output −
comparison of different sequence types
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "C:\Users\mlath\examples\example.py", line 5, in <module>
print ("a=",a, "b=",b,"a<b is",a<b)
^^^
TypeError: '<' not supported between instances of 'tuple' and 'list'
Sequence objects are compared by lexicographical ordering mechanism. The comparison starts from item at 0th index. If they are equal, comparison moves to next index till the items at certain index happen to be not equal, or one of the sequences is exhausted. If one sequence is an initial sub-sequence of the other, the shorter sequence is the smaller (lesser) one.
Which of the operands is greater depends on the difference in values of items at the index where they are unequal. For example, 'BAT'>'BAR' is True, as T comes after R in Unicode order.
If all items of two sequences compare equal, the sequences are considered equal.
It will produce the following output −
comparison of strings a= BAT b= BALL a<b is False a= BAT b= BALL a>b is True a= BAT b= BALL a==b is False a= BAT b= BALL a!=b is True
In the following example, two tuple objects are compared −
It will produce the following output −
a= (1, 2, 4) b= (1, 2, 3) a<b is False a= (1, 2, 4) b= (1, 2, 3) a>b is True a= (1, 2, 4) b= (1, 2, 3) a==b is False a= (1, 2, 4) b= (1, 2, 3) a!=b is True
Comparison of Dictionary Objects
The use of "<" and ">" operators for Python’s dictionary is not defined. In case of these operands, TypeError: '<' not supported between instances of 'dict' and 'dict' is reported.
Equality comparison checks if the length of both the dict items is same. Length of dictionary is the number of key-value pairs in it.
Python dictionaries are simply compared by length. The dictionary with fewer elements is considered less than a dictionary with more elements.
It will produce the following output −
comparison of dictionary objects
a= {1: 1, 2: 2} b= {2: 2, 1: 1, 3: 3} a==b is False
a= {1: 1, 2: 2} b= {2: 2, 1: 1, 3: 3} a!=b is True
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