Python Program to Check Two Strings are Anagram or Not

This article is created to cover some programs in Python, that receives two strings by user at run-time, and checks whether two strings are anagram or not. Here are the list of programs:

• Check Two Strings are Anagram or Not using for loop, without sorting the string
• Using sorted() Function
• Using user-defined Function
• Using Class

Before created these programs, let's first understand about anagram.

What are Anagram Strings ?

Two strings can be called as anagram, when:

• both contains the same number of characters
• order of characters doesn't matter
• one string can be rearranged to form the other one

For Example, abc and cba are two anagram strings. Similarly, creative and reactive are also anagram. That is, characters of creative can be rearranged to form reactive and vice-versa.

Check Two Strings are Anagram using for Loop

This program is created using for loop to check whether the two strings entered by user are anagram or not. The question is, write a Python program to check Anagram or not without sorting the string. Here is its answer:

print("Enter the First String:")
textOne = str(input())
print("Enter the Second String:")
textTwo = str(input())
found=0
notFound=0
lenOne = len(textOne)
lenTwo = len(textTwo)
if lenOne == lenTwo:
    for i in range(lenOne):
        found = 0
        for j in range(lenOne):
            if textOne[i] == textTwo[j]:
                found = 1
                break
        if found==0:
            notFound = 1
            break
    if notFound==1:
        print("\nStrings are Not Anagram")
    else:
        print("\nStrings are Anagram")
else:
    print("\nLength of Strings are not Equal")

Here is its sample run:

Now supply two strings input say listen as first and silent as second string and press ENTER key to check and print whether these two strings are anagram or not as shown in the snapshot given below:

Here is another sample run with user input listen and silenx as first and second string:

And here is the third sample run with user input codes and cracker as first and second string:

Note - The str() method is used to convert any type of value to a string type. And len() method returns length of string passed as its argument.

The dry run of above program with user input listen and silent, goes like:

• Initial values, textOne = listen (entered by user), textTwo = silent (entered by user), found = 0, notFound = 0
• Now using len() method, the length of first and second string gets initialized to lenOne and lenTwo variables. So lenOne=6 and lenTwo=6
• Since the condition (of if) lenOne == lenTwo or 6 == 6 evaluates to be true, therefore program flow goes inside this if's body
• The range() returns a sequence of values, starting with 0 and increments by 1 each time, by default. Continues until lenOne-1, since lenOne provided as its argument
• Therefore at first execution i's value is 0, so i<lenOne or 0<6 evaluates to be true, therefore program flow goes inside this for loop's body
• And 0 gets initialized to found. Now there is another for loop that gets executed
• So j=0 and since 0 is less than lenOne's value, therefore the condition evaluates to be true, and program flow goes inside this for loop's body
• Inside this loop, I've compared the character at current index of first string to all characters of second string. That is, if the character of first string gets matches to any character of second string, then 1 gets stored to found and using break keyword, remaining execution of this for loop gets skipped
• And using found==0 condition, we've checked whether program flow goes inside previous if's body or not. That is, if previous if's condition evaluates to be true, then we've to continue, otherwise, initialize 1 to notFound and using break keyword, skip remaining execution of outer for loop
• In this way, I've compared in character by character manner, and checked whether two strings entered by user are anagram or not
• Since each and every characters of first string is available in second string, therefore program flow never goes inside the body of if whose condition is found==0. So that 1 never gets initialized to notFound variable. And the condition notFound==1 doesn't evaluates to be true, therefore else's statement gets executed
• That prints Strings are Anagram

Modified Version of Previous Program

This program uses sorted() method to sort the string and compares strings in character by character manner, to check whether two strings are anagram or not. The end= is used to skip inserting an automatic newline using print()

print(end="Enter the First String: ")
textOne = str(input())
print(end="Enter the Second String: ")
textTwo = str(input())
lenOne = len(textOne)
lenTwo = len(textTwo)
notFound=0
if lenOne == lenTwo:
    textOne = sorted(textOne)
    textTwo = sorted(textTwo)
    for i in range(lenOne):
        if textOne[i] != textTwo[i]:
            notFound=1
            break
    if notFound==0:
        print("\nStrings are Anagram")
    else:
        print("\nStrings are Not Anagram")
else:
    print("\nLength of Strings are not Equal")

Here is its sample run with user input creative and reactive as two strings:

Check Anagram Strings using sorted()

This program uses sorted() method to do the same job as previous program does. The two strings entered by user gets compared directly using == operator.

print("Enter First String: ", end="")
textOne = str(input())
print("Enter Second String: ", end="")
textTwo = str(input())

lenOne = len(textOne)
lenTwo = len(textTwo)

if lenOne == lenTwo:
    if sorted(textOne) == sorted(textTwo):
        print("\nStrings are Anagram")
    else:
        print("\nStrings are Not Anagram")
else:
    print("\nLength of Strings are not Equal")

Here is its sample run with user input sadder and dreads:

Check Anagram Strings using Function

This program is created using user-defined function named CheckAnag(). The function receives two strings as its argument and returns 1 if both strings are anagram.

def CheckAnag(sOne, sTwo):
    if sorted(sOne) == sorted(sTwo):
        return 1

print("Enter First String: ", end="")
textOne = str(input())
print("Enter Second String: ", end="")
textTwo = str(input())

rVal = CheckAnag(textOne, textTwo)
if rVal==1:
        print("\nStrings are Anagram")
else:
    print("\nStrings are Not Anagram")

Check Anagram Strings using Class

This is the last program created using class, an object-oriented feature of Python. To access member function of a class, an object is required. Therefore an object named obj is created of class fresherearth to access its member function named CheckAnag() using dot (.) operator.

class fresherearth:
    def CheckAnag(self, sOne, sTwo):
        if sorted(sOne) == sorted(sTwo):
            return 1

print("Enter First String: ", end="")
textOne = str(input())
print("Enter Second String: ", end="")
textTwo = str(input())

obj = fresherearth()
rVal = obj.CheckAnag(textOne, textTwo)

if rVal==1:
        print("\nStrings are Anagram")
else:
    print("\nStrings are Not Anagram")

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