similar code logic, two different answers

Question

why does the output of these two functions give different outputs when the logic or idea is the same and they are working with the same string?

def solution(inputString):
    a = ""
    b = a[::-1]
    if a == b:
        return True
    else:
        return False



print(solution("az"))

def ans(something):
    if something == reversed(something):
        print(True)
    else:
        print(False)
ans('az')

It seems your second function is _printing_ `True`, while the first function is _returning_ it as a value. If you want both to do the same thing, make the second return True instead of printing it. EDIT : Also your first function doesn't even use its input... — Mateo Vial, Feb 23 '22 at 17:03
On both functions, you can replace the `if` by just returning the value of your statement: `return something == reversed(something)` — 0stone0, Feb 23 '22 at 17:05
`reversed` is a type, so `something == reversed(something)` will never be true when `something` is a `str` value. — chepner, Feb 23 '22 at 17:06

score 0 · Answer 1 · answered Feb 23 '22 at 17:09

This is I think because you are not using your inputString parameter in the function solution(). This may be closer to what you want:

def solution(inputString):
    a = inputString
    b = a[::-1]
    if a == b:
        return True
    else:
        return False

0stone0 · Answer 2 · 2022-02-23T17:18:06.520

when the logic or idea is the same

No, the solution and ans functions have different logic.

solution uses the common way of reversing a string, thats fine

However, the second function uses reversed() function, which does:

reversed(seq)

Return a reverse iterator. seq must be an object which has a __reversed__() method or supports the sequence protocol ...

It does not return the reversed string as you'd probably expected.

To put that in perspective, the following code returns False:

print("oof" == reversed("foo"))

Because the return value of reversed("foo") is an <reversed object> and not the reversed String.

similar code logic, two different answers

2 Answers2