Syntax: Comparisons in python

Question

I'm new to python and am having trouble comparing two elements. One element is from an array that I created using the readlines() method on a text file, and the other is just a variable I assigned a value. I have code that looks something like

f=open('graph.txt')
graph=f.readlines()
f.close()
node=0
print graph[0][0]
print node
print graph[0][0]==node

and it prints

0
0
False

Why is the double equals giving a false, when the two items print the same value? Is it because they are different types, or something like that? Thanks!

Answer 1

You are comparing strings and integers. Convert one or the other:

graph[0][0] == str(node)

or

int(graph[0][0]) == node

or make node a string to begin with:

node = '0'

Note that '0' and 0 (string and integer values) print the same:

>>> print '0'
0
>>> print 0
0

Use repr() to make the difference clear:

>>> print repr('0')
'0'
>>> print repr(0)
0