What does the <> operator do in python?

Question

I just came across this here, always used like this:

if string1.find(string2) <> -1:
    pass

What does the <> ope

Answer 1

<> is the same as != although the <> form is deprecated. Your code sample could be more cleanly be written as:

if string2 not in string1:
    pass

Answer 2

<> would mean greater than or less than, essentially 'not equal'.

Answer 3

http://docs.python.org/reference/expressions.html#notin says:

The [operators] <> and != are equivalent; for consistency with C, != is preferred. [...] The <> spelling is considered obsolescent.