How to check if two lists are equal in Python

How to check if two lists are equal in Python.

Here is a detailed step-by-step tutorial on how to check if two lists are equal in Python.

Step 1: Create two lists

First, you need to create two lists that you want to compare. You can use any elements of your choice for these lists. For this tutorial, let's create two example lists:

list1 = [1, 2, 3]
list2 = [1, 2, 3]

Step 2: Use the == operator

In Python, you can use the == operator to check if two lists are equal. This operator compares the elements of both lists and returns True if they are equal, and False otherwise. Here's an example:

if list1 == list2:
    print("The lists are equal")
else:
    print("The lists are not equal")

When you run this code, it will compare list1 and list2 and print "The lists are equal" because both lists contain the same elements in the same order.

Step 3: Testing with different lists

Now, let's see how the comparison works with different lists. For example:

list3 = [1, 2, 3]
list4 = [3, 2, 1]

if list3 == list4:
    print("The lists are equal")
else:
    print("The lists are not equal")

When you run this code, it will compare list3 and list4 and print "The lists are not equal" because even though the elements are the same, their order is different.

Step 4: Using the all() function

If you have lists with nested elements, such as sublists, dictionaries, or tuples, you can use the all() function along with the == operator to compare them. The all() function returns True if all the elements in the iterable are True, and False otherwise.

list5 = [[1, 2], [3, 4]]
list6 = [[1, 2], [3, 4]]

if all(a == b for a, b in zip(list5, list6)):
    print("The lists are equal")
else:
    print("The lists are not equal")

When you run this code, it will compare list5 and list6 by iterating over each element using the zip() function. In this example, it will print "The lists are equal" because both lists have the same nested elements.

Step 5: Handling different lengths

If you want to check for equality even when the lists have different lengths, you can use the len() function to compare their lengths before comparing the elements. Here's an example:

list7 = [1, 2, 3]
list8 = [1, 2, 3, 4]

if len(list7) == len(list8) and all(a == b for a, b in zip(list7, list8)):
    print("The lists are equal")
else:
    print("The lists are not equal")

When you run this code, it will compare list7 and list8 by first checking if their lengths are equal. In this example, it will print "The lists are not equal" because list8 is longer than list7.

That's it! You now know how to check if two lists are equal in Python. Feel free to experiment with different lists and compare their equality using these methods.