I was doing some research about comparing lists in Python. I came across the compare function.
http://www.tutorialspoint.com/python/list_cmp.htm
If I wanted to check if two lists had the same elements, is there a difference between:
and
if cmp( list1, list2 ) == 0
...
I know there is a difference in other languages, but I do not know if Python is one of them.
You cannot, and should not, compare Python to Java EVER. They have completely different ways of approaching variables, classes, and pretty much everything else.
Python "variables" act more like nametags. They are not even considered pointers, in the classical definition. Python runs exclusively on a dictionary based mentality, that can be seen clearly by calling any object's dict attribute:
print someobject.__dict__
Java runs a pure pointer approach. Each variable is exactly equivalent to a C++ pointer. This is why == in Java does not return true, also Java is a typed language meaning Integer cannot ever be String once it is defined in the code.
However, Python classes can override the __eq__ function to override what == means between ANY two objects. This means that list.__eq__ may be very different from dict.__eq__.
A good discussion to some of these principles: http://me.veekun.com/blog/2012/05/23/python-faq-passing/