Python – Understanding the ‘is’ Operator with Strings

pythonstring

The is operator compares the memory addresses of two objects, and returns True if they're the same. Why, then, does it not work reliably with strings?
Code #1

>>> a = "poi"
>>> b = "poi"
>>> a is b
True

Code #2

>>> ktr = "today is a fine day"
>>> ptr = "today is a fine day"
>>> ktr is ptr
False

I have created two strings whose content is the same but they are living on different memory addresses. Why is the output of the is operator not consistent?

Best Answer

I believe it has to do with string interning. In essence, the idea is to store only a single copy of each distinct string, to increase performance on some operations.

Basically, the reason why a is b works is because (as you may have guessed) there is a single immutable string that is referenced by Python in both cases. When a string is large (and some other factors that I don't understand, most likely), this isn't done, which is why your second example returns False.

EDIT: And in fact, the odd behavior seems to be a side-effect of the interactive environment. If you take your same code and place it into a Python script, both a is b and ktr is ptr return True.

a="poi"
b="poi"
print a is b  # Prints 'True'

ktr = "today is a fine day"
ptr = "today is a fine day"
print ktr is ptr  # Prints 'True'

This makes sense, since it'd be easy for Python to parse a source file and look for duplicate string literals within it. If you create the strings dynamically, then it behaves differently even in a script.

a="p" + "oi"
b="po" + "i"
print a is b  # Oddly enough, prints 'True'

ktr = "today is" + " a fine day"
ptr = "today is a f" + "ine day"
print ktr is ptr  # Prints 'False'

As for why a is b still results in True, perhaps the allocated string is small enough to warrant a quick search through the interned collection, whereas the other one is not?

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