best way to compare contents of 2 lists?

[Esmail]

Esmail wrote:
> What is the best way to compare the *contents* of two different
> lists regardless of their respective order? The lists will have
> the same number of items, and be of the same type.
> 
> E.g. a trivial example (my lists will be larger),
> 
> a=[1, 2, 3]
> 
> b=[2, 3, 1]
> 
> should yield true if a==b
> 
> I suppose I could sort them and then compare them. I.e.,
> 
> sorted(a)==sorted(b)
> 
> 
> I am wondering if there is a more efficient/preferred way to do so.

oh, I forgot to mention that each list may contain duplicates. So I
suppose this means I would have to sort the two lists and compare them
afterall, unless there's another way?