What is the differences between “is” and “==” operators in Python.

Austin Jorgensen
2 min readMar 16, 2023

--

In Python, “is” and “==” are comparison operators used to check for the relationship between two objects or values, but they serve different purposes.

The Equality Operator “==”

The “==” operator is used to compare the values of two objects for equality. It checks whether the values on the left and right sides of the operator are equal or not. If the values are equal, it returns True; otherwise, it returns False.

x = [1, 2, 3]
y = [1, 2, 3]
print(x == y) # Output: True

In the example above, x and y are two different lists with the same values, so the “==” operator returns True.

The Identity Operator “is”

The “is” operator is used to compare the identities of two objects, which means it checks whether the two objects are the same in memory (i.e., they refer to the same memory location). If they are the same object, it returns True; otherwise, it returns False.

x = [1, 2, 3]
y = [1, 2, 3]
print(x is y) # Output: False

In the example above, x and y are two different lists, even though they have the same values. They are stored in different memory locations, so the “is” operator returns False.

To summarize, the “==” operator checks if two objects have the same value, while the “is” operator checks if two objects are the same object in memory (i.e., they have the same identity).

--

--

Austin Jorgensen
Austin Jorgensen

Written by Austin Jorgensen

Topics of Interest: Python, JavaScript, Node.js, AI, ML, Health and Wellness.

No responses yet