CODEWITHSUNDEEP
pythonpython-3.xpython-2.7
alien
alien

Reputation: 21

How to write a function to compare two strings alphabetically?

If a="formula" and b="formulab" are two strings, how can the function compare which string comes after the other and return a true or false value? We know string b will come after, but how to determine that using the function?

def alphabet_order(a,b):
    if len(a) > len(b):
        return True
    else:
        return False

I am getting the length of the strings, but how can I sort the strings lexicographically and compare them?

Upvotes: 0

Views: 762

Answers (1)

darren
darren

Reputation: 5694

Python compares strings lexicographically based on their order in the ascii table for alphabet (where each letter is essentially assigned a value).

Here is a link to the numeric order: https://www.asciitable.com/

So you now have two options:

  1. compare by length (using len()).
  2. compare by value.

Here is an example of the value comparison:

a = 'hello'
b = 'world'

if a > b:
    print('a > b')
else :
    print('a < b')

which returns this:

a < b

because "hello comes" before "world" in that ordering.

You can wrap the above into a function.

Upvotes: 1

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