How to Reliably Compare Version Numbers in Python?

Comparing Version Numbers in Python

When walking a directory that contains multiple versions of the same egg, ensuring that only the latest version is added to the sys.path can pose a challenge due to the non-intuitive ordering of version strings when comparing them as strings.

Using packaging.version

Python provides an elegant solution through the packaging.version module, which supports PEP 440-style ordering of version strings. This module offers the Version class, which can be used to compare versions accurately.

from packaging.version import Version

# Example:
version1 = Version("2.3.1")
version2 = Version("10.1.2")
print(version1 <p><strong>Legacy Methods</strong></p><p>An older method for comparing version strings is distutils.version. However, it's deprecated and adheres to the superseded PEP 386. It provides two classes, LooseVersion and StrictVersion.</p><pre class="brush:php;toolbar:false">from distutils.version import LooseVersion, StrictVersion

# LooseVersion compares versions loosely:
version1 = LooseVersion("2.3.1")
version2 = LooseVersion("10.1.2")
print(version1 <p><strong>Conclusion</strong></p><p>When comparing version numbers in Python, packaging.version offers a reliable and elegant solution. It adheres to the current PEP 440 specification and provides a clean and concise API for version comparison.</p>

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