Checking if two strings are permutations of each other in Python

Question

I\'m checking if two strings a and b are permutations of each other, and I\'m wondering what the ideal way to do this is in Python. From the Zen of

Answer 1

Here's martinus code in python. It only works for ascii strings:

def is_permutation(a, b):
    if len(a) != len(b):
        return False

    char_count = [0] * 256
    for c in a:
        char_count[ord(c)] += 1

    for c in b:
        char_count[ord(c)] -= 1
        if char_count[ord(c)] < 0:
            return False

    return True