How Does Python Compare Strings Using < and >?

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How Python Determines the Outcome of String Comparisons

In Python, the outcome of a string comparison using the < or > operators is determined based on lexicographical ordering. Lexicographical ordering considers the characters in each string individually and compares them in sequence.

The comparison proceeds as follows:

• If the first characters of the strings are different, the outcome is determined by the character with the lower Unicode code point number (Python 3) or ASCII code point number (Python 2).
• If the first characters are equal, the comparison moves on to the second characters, and so on.
• The comparison continues until either string runs out of characters or the strings are found to be different.

For example, in the expression 'abc' < 'bac', the first characters 'a' and 'b' are different. Since 'a' has a lower Unicode code point than 'b', the expression evaluates to True.

Lexicographical ordering also takes into account lowercase and uppercase characters. Lowercase characters have higher code point numbers than their uppercase counterparts, so expressions like 'a' > 'A' and 'b' > 'B' evaluate to True.

It's important to note that while lexicographical ordering typically aligns with the expected numerical ordering of strings representing numbers, it's not guaranteed. For numerical comparison, it's recommended to convert the strings to numeric types before performing comparisons.

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