comparison - double equals vs is in python

Question

This question already has answers here:

Is there a difference between “==” and “is”? (14 answers)

String comparison in Python: is vs. == [duplicate] (4 answers)

Closed 8 years ago.

I run the following in the Python interpreter:

>>> foo = 10
>>> dir(foo) == dir(10)
True
>>> dir(foo) is dir(10)
False
>>> 

Why is this?

Answer 1

is checks that 2 arguments refer to the same object, == checks that 2 arguments have the same value. dir() returns a list which contains the same data for both foo and 10, but the actual list instances for the 2 things are different.