In this article, we are going to see != (Not equal) operators. In Python, != is defined as not equal to operator. It returns True if operands on either side are not equal to each other, and returns False if they are equal.
Python NOT EQUAL operators Syntax
The Operator not equal in the Python description:
- != Not Equal operator, works in both Python 2 and Python 3.
- <> Not equal operator in Python 2, deprecated in Python 3.
Syntax: Value A != Value B
Return Type:
- Returns either True or False
Note: It is important to keep in mind that this comparison operator will return True if the values are the same but are of different data types.
Examples of NOT EQUAL Operator in Python
Here are a few examples of Python NOT EQUAL operators.
Example 1: NOT EQUAL Operator with same DataType
In this example, we are comparing different values of the same datatype, that is integers to see how the NOT EQUAL operator works.
Python3
A = 1B = 2C = 2print(A!=B)print(B!=C) |
Output:
True False
Example 2: NOT EQUAL operator with different DataTypes
In this example, we are comparing similar values of the different datatypes to see how the NOT EQUAL operator works. We are taking an integer, a float, and a Python String as input.
Python3
A = 1B = 1.0C = "1"print(A!=B)print(B!=C)print(A!=C) |
Output:
False True True
Compare lists in Python using the Not Equal Operator
Python NOT EQUAL operator can also be used to compare two lists. Let’s see how can this be done.
In this example, we are taking 3 Python lists, out of which two are integers and one is a string list. Then we compared them using the NOT EQUAL operator.
Python3
list1 = [10, 20, 30]list2 = [10, 20, 30]list3 = ["Lazyroar", "for", "Lazyroar"]print(list1 != list2)print(list1 != list3) |
Output:
False True
Use of if statement with the Not Equal operator in Python
The NOT EQUAL operator can also be used with the Python if else statements. Let us see a simple example of this.
In this example, we are comparing two strings and then printing a message based on the output of the NOT EQUAL operator.
Python3
str1 = 'Geeks'str2 = 'Lazyroar'if str1 != str2: print("Strings are not Equal")else: print("Strings are Equal") |
Output:
Numbers are not Equal
Python NOT EQUAL Operator with Custom Object
We can also use the NOT EQUAL operator with custom objects in Python. Here is an example of how the NOT EQUAL operator works with custom objects.
The Python __ne__() decorator gets called whenever the not equal operator in Python is used. We can override this function to alter the nature of the ‘not equal’ operator.
Python3
class Student: def __init__(self, name): self.student_name = name def __ne__(self, x): # return true for different types # of object if type(x) != type(self): return True # return True for different values if self.student_name != x.student_name: return True else: return Falses1 = Student("Shyam")s2 = Student("Raju")s3 = Student("babu rao")print(s1 != s2)print(s2 != s3) |
Output:
True True
