How to Check if Two Python Strings are Anagrams

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Updated on Jun 12, 2023 10:57 IST

An Anagram is a word or phrase that is formed by rearranging all the letters of a different word or phrase exactly once such as elbow and below. In this article, we will discuss different methods to check if two strings are anagram or not.

Python strings are amongst the most frequently asked questions for beginners in Python programming. Whether you’re polishing your coding skills or preparing for interviews, there are a few common programs you will definitely come across, for example:

In this article, we will focus on another such program – how to determine if two strings are anagrams or not using various methods.

Table of Content

What is an Anagram?
Methods to Check if Two Strings are Anagrams

But first, for the unaware, let’s talk about what an anagram is, shall we?

What is an Anagram?

An Anagram is a word or phrase that is formed by rearranging all the letters of a different word or phrase exactly once. For instance:

All these are examples of anagrams – each word or phrase has the exact same letters as the other, only arranged differently. Interesting, right?

In Python, two strings can be anagrams if all characters of one string can be rearranged into a sequence resulting in another string. Below, we have discussed different ways in which we can check the same:

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Methods to Check if Two Strings are Anagrams

Method 1 – Sort both strings and compare

This method first converts both input strings to lowercase and then sorts the strings using the sort() method. The resulting strings are then compared and if they match, they are anagrams. It’s as simple as it sounds!

#Enter input strings
str1 = str(input ("Enter string 1: "))
str2 = str(input ("Enter string 2: "))

#Convert into lowercase and sort
str1 = sorted(str1.lower())
str2 = sorted(str2.lower())

print("String 1 after sorting: ", str1)
print("String 2 after sorting: ", str2)

#Define a function to match strings
def isAnagram():
    if (str1 == str2) :
        return "The strings are anagrams."
    else:
        return "The strings are not anagrams."

print(isAnagram())
Copy code

Output:

What is Programming	What is Python
What is Data Science	What is Machine Learning

Method 2 – Using the counter() method

For this method too, we first convert the strings to lowercase. Then we import the counter from the collections library in Python. We will apply this method to both strings and compare the counters for both strings. If the counters match, the strings are anagrams.

from collections import Counter

#Define a function to match counters
def check(str1,str2):
  print(Counter(str1))
  print(Counter(str2))
  if (Counter(str1) == Counter(str2)) :
    return "The strings are anagrams."
  else:
    return "The strings are not anagrams."

#Enter input strings
str1 = str(input ("Enter string 1: "))
str2 = str(input ("Enter string 2: "))

#Call the function
check(str1.lower(), str2.lower())
Copy code

Output:

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Method 3 – Using lists and append() method

Another method is to declare two empty lists l1 and l2. Both input strings are converted to lowercase and appended to l1 and l2 respectively. The lists are then sorted and compared. If matched, the strings are anagrams.

#Enter input strings
str1 = str(input ("Enter string 1: "))
str2 = str(input ("Enter string 2: "))

#Declare two empty lists
l1=[]
l2=[]

##Convert first string into lowercase
#append to list 1
#and sort
for i in str1:
  l1.append(i.lower())
l1.sort()

##Convert second string into lowercase
#append to list 2
#and sort
for j in str2:
  l2.append(j.lower())
l2.sort()

print("List 1 after sorting: ", l1)
print("List 2 after sorting: ", l2)

#Define a function to match lists
def isAnagram():
    if (l2 == l2) :
        return "The strings are anagrams."
    else:
        return "The strings are not anagrams."

print(isAnagram())
Copy code

Output

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Data Science Online Courses and Certifications	Machine Learning Online Courses and Certifications

Method 4 – Using count arrays

We are already aware that 1-byte (8-bits) character sets can contain 256 characters. So, in this method, we perform the following steps:

Create count arrays of size 256 to store the input strings.
Initialize the count arrays to 0.
Iterate through all characters of the strings.
After each iteration, the character count is incremented by one in the corresponding count array.
Compare the count arrays. If they match, the strings are anagrams.

total_char = 256
 
#Define a function to check if strings are anagrams
def isAnagram(str1, str2):
 
    #Create two count arrays and initialize all values as 0
    count1 = [0] * total_char
    count2 = [0] * total_char
 
    #For each character in input strings,
    #increment count corresponding to count array
    for i in str1:
        count1[ord(i)] += 1
 
    for i in str2:
        count2[ord(i)] += 1
 
    #Check if strings are of the same length
    if len(str1) != len(str2):
        return 0
 
    #Compare count arrays
    for i in range(total_char):
        if count1[i] != count2[i]:
            return 0
 
    return 1
 
#Enter input strings
str1 = str(input ("Enter string 1: ")).lower()
str2 = str(input ("Enter string 2: ")).lower()

 
#Function call
if isAnagram(str1, str2):
  print("The strings are anagrams.")
else:
  print("The strings are not anagrams.")
Copy code

Output:

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Conclusion

Hope this article will be helpful for you to understand the different ways in which one can check if two Python strings are anagrams or not. If you wish to learn more about Python and practice Python programming, you can explore related articles here.

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How to Check if Two Python Strings are Anagrams

Table of Content

What is an Anagram?

Methods to Check if Two Strings are Anagrams

Method 1 – Sort both strings and compare

Method 2 – Using the counter() method

Method 3 – Using lists and append() method

Method 4 – Using count arrays

Conclusion

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