Published: 2022-08-16.

The operator is checks if the two given objects are the same object in the memory:

{} is {}  # False
d = {}
d is d    # True

Since types are also objects, you can use it to compare types:

type(1) is int        # True
type(1) is float      # False
type(1) is not float  # True

And you can also use == for comparing types:

type(1) == int  # True

So, when to use is and when to use ==? There are some best practices:

• Use is to compare with None: var is None.
• Use is to compare with True and False. However, don’t explicitly check for True and False in conditions, prefer just if user.admin instead of if user.admin is True. Still, the latter can be useful in tests: assert actual is True.
• Use isinstance to compare types: if isinstance(user, LoggedInUser). The big difference is that it allows subclasses. So if you have a class Admin which is subclass of LoggedInUser, it will pass isinstance check.
• Use is in some rare cases when you explicitly want to allow only the given type without subclasses: type(user) is Admin. Keep in mind, that mypy will refine the type only for isinstance but not for type is.
• Use is to compare enum members: color is Color.RED.
• Use == in ORMs and query builders like sqlalchemy: session.query(User).filter(User.admin == True). The reason is that is behavior cannot be redefined using magic methods but == can (using __eq__).
• Use == in all other cases. In particular, always use == to compare values: answer == 42.