Understanding How to Compare Two Lists in Python

• Last modified: 15 December 2010
• Category: python tutorial

In this post, we going compare two lists with different methods.

Method 1: Comparison between two lists by using python condition.

in this example, we'll check if two lists are equal

a = [1, 2, 3, 4]
b = [1, 2, 3, 5] 
if a == b :
    print('YES! NO! list "a" and list "b" are similar')

else:
    print('NO! list "a" and list "b" are not similar')

Output:

NO! list a and list b are not similar

method 2: Comparison between two lists using sets module

in this example, we will compare between list "a" and "b" and getting duplicate items
So let's do it

a = [1, 2, 3, 4]
b = [1, 2, 3, 5] 
print(set(a) & set(b))

Output:

{1, 2, 3}

for more information check out sets module documentation sets module documentation