What is the difference between "==" and "is" operator in Python?

The is operator determines whether the two operands refer to an identical object or not. On the other hand, the == operator takes the operands’ values and compares them to check if they are equal.

Code

l1 = []
l2 = []
l3 = l1
 
if (l1 == l2):
    print("True")
else:
    print("False")
 
if (l1 is l2):
    print("True")
else:
    print("False")
 
if (l1 is l3):
    print("True")
else:   
    print("False")
 
l3 = l2
 
if (l2 == l3):
    print("True")
else:   
    print("False")

Explanation

  • The output of the first if condition is True as both l1 and l2 are empty.

  • The second if condition returns False as l1 and l2 point to different objects with the same value but different memory locations.

  • The third if condition returns True as equating l3 to l1 means both point to the same object.

  • The fourth if condition returns True as equating l3 to l2 means both point to the same object. This means they both have the same value as well.

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