#!/usr/bin/env python # coding: utf-8 # # Comparisons # # Boolean values most often arise from comparison operators. Python includes a variety of operators that compare values. For example, `3` is larger than `1 + 1`. # In[1]: 3 > 1 + 1 # The value `True` indicates that the comparison is valid; Python has confirmed this simple fact about the relationship between `3` and `1+1`. The full set of common comparison operators are listed below. # # | Comparison | Operator | True example | False Example | # |--------------------|----------|--------------|---------------| # | Less than | < | 2 < 3 | 2 < 2 | # | Greater than | > | 3>2 | 3>3 | # | Less than or equal | <= | 2 <= 2 | 3 <= 2 | # | Greater or equal | >= | 3 >= 3 | 2 >= 3 | # | Equal | == | 3 == 3 | 3 == 2 | # | Not equal | != | 3 != 2 | 2 != 2 | # An expression can contain multiple comparisons, and they all must hold in order for the whole expression to be `True`. For example, we can express that `1+1` is between `1` and `3` using the following expression. # In[2]: 1 < 1 + 1 < 3 # The average of two numbers is always between the smaller number and the larger number. We express this relationship for the numbers `x` and `y` below. You can try different values of `x` and `y` to confirm this relationship. # In[3]: x = 12 y = 5 min(x, y) <= (x+y)/2 <= max(x, y) # Strings can also be compared, and their order is alphabetical. A shorter string is less than a longer string that begins with the shorter string. # In[4]: "Dog" > "Catastrophe" > "Cat"