Let’s say you want to compare two string to see if they have the same value. You can do it using the comparison operator is equal to which is represented by == (two equal signs).

>>> s1 = 'Dan'
>>> s2 = 'Dumitrache'
>>> if s1 == s2:
... print('Strings are equal!')
... else:
... print('Strings are not equal!')
...
Strings are not equal!

Of course, you could put the whole if-else statement into a function then just call the function.

>>> s1 = 'Dan'
>>> s2 = 'Dumitrache'
def compare_strings():
... if s1 == s2:
... print('Strings are equal!')
... else:
... print('Strings are not equal!')
...
>>> compare_strings()
Strings are not equal!

Let’s choose two strings that are equal and then use is to compare if the two variables refer to the same object.

>>> s1 = 'Honda'
>>> s2 = 'Honda'
>>> if s1 == s2:
... print('Honda is good!')
... else:
... print('Yamaha is cheaper!')
...
Honda is good!
>>>
>>> dir(s1) is dir(s2)
False

As you can see, the two strings are equal but they refer to two different objects.

Let’s try to use other comparison operators on two newly created strings.

>>> s1 = 'dan'
>>> s2 = 'Dan'
>>> s1 > s2
True
>>> s1 != s2
True

Note:
Uppercase letters in Python come first, then lowercase letters. That’s why s1 > s2 returns True. Other comparison operators can be used.