Difference between '==' and 'is' in Python, and when to use each of them

In Python, there are many comparison operators; you always use them to check something in your code and let your code take decision according to the comparison

In this article, I want to go deep with two operators == to check equality, and is to check identity.

The == operator

The equality comparison operator.

>>> 1 == 1
True

In the above code, we are checking whether the value of int 1 is an equal value of int 1, in other words, we are checking the values equality here.

class Number:
    def __init__(self, number):
         self.number = number
         
 >>> Number(1) == Number(1)
 False # Wooot

In the above code, we are checking if the values of 2 objects are equal. They are not equal. Classes in Python 🐍 have dunder methods to implement special logic of magic.

via GIPHY

For example, __init__() is dunder method to initiate a new object or the class constructor. For our example above, there is a dunder method used to check the equality which is __eq__() , if we implement it correctly, the expression in the code about should work.

class Number:
    def __init__(self, number):
        self.number = number

    def __eq__(self, another_number):
        if isinstance(another_number, Number):
            return self.number == another_number.number
        return self.number == another_number

>>> Number(1) == Number(1)
True 
>>> Number(1) == 1
True

All right, now our class has a correct equality logic. The equality logic is implemented in __eq__ method. It is also implemented in Python built-in types like Integers.

import inspect
from pprint import pprint

# 1 is object of int class
pprint(inspect.getmembers(1))
pprint(inspect.getmembers(int))

The is operator

The identity check operator

>>> none_obj = None
>>> none_obj is None
True
>>> number_one = 1
>>> number_one is 1

In Python, every object created will store a reference to it, like in the above code none_obj which is storing a reference to None, and number_one object is storing a reference to 1. Let’s examine how this is done by Python.

>>> none_obj = None
>>> id(none_obj)
4304631824
>>> id(None)
4304631824
>>> id(number_one)
4304948352
>>> id(1)
4304948352

When you create a new variable that stores an object or value, this variable name stores a reference to it, so if you create another variable to store the same object, Python stores a pointer to this object instead of creating a new one.

a = Number(1)
b = a
>>> id(a), id(b)
(4520963656, 4520963656)
>>> a is b
True

Technically speaking, when you check the identity, Python checks id(a) == id(b), which means: Do objects a and b refer to the same object? So the answer will be True if they refer to the same object.

Conclusion

If you need to check the value equality, use the == operator and if you need to check whether 2 objects are the same, use is.

Happy Pythoning 😉