<var> is None vs. <var> == None

[Chris Rebert]

On Fri, Jan 23, 2009 at 11:58 AM, Gerald Britton
<gerald.britton at gmail.com> wrote:
> Hi -- Some time ago I ran across a comment recommending using <var> is
> None instead of <var> == None (also <var> is not None, etc.)  My own
> testing indicates that the former beats the latter by about 30% on
> average.  Not a log for a single instruction but it can add up in
> large projects.
>
> I'm looking for a (semi)-official statement on this, but couldn't find
> one with normal googling.  Can someone please send a link?

>From http://www.python.org/dev/peps/pep-0008/ ,
2nd bullet under "Programming Recommendations":

    - Comparisons to singletons like None should always be done with
      'is' or 'is not', never the equality operators.


Just FYI, `is` compares object identity (pointer equality) whereas ==
checks for value equivalence (which causes a method call). This is why
it's significantly faster.
But the main reason is because it's idiomatic.

Cheers,
Chris

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