3.13. Comparing Versions¶

To compare two versions depends on your type:

Two strings

Use semver.compare:
```
>>> semver.compare("1.0.0", "2.0.0")
-1
>>> semver.compare("2.0.0", "1.0.0")
1
>>> semver.compare("2.0.0", "2.0.0")
0
```
The return value is negative if version1 < version2, zero if version1 == version2 and strictly positive if version1 > version2.

Two Version instances

Use the specific operator. Currently, the operators <, <=, >, >=, ==, and != are supported:

>>> v1 = Version.parse("3.4.5")
>>> v2 = Version.parse("3.5.1")
>>> v1 < v2
True
>>> v1 > v2
False

A Version type and a tuple() or list()

Use the operator as with two Version types:

>>> v = Version.parse("3.4.5")
>>> v > (1, 0)
True
>>> v < [3, 5]
True

The opposite does also work:

>>> (1, 0) < v
True
>>> [3, 5] > v
True

A Version type and a str()

You can use also raw strings to compare:

>>> v > "1.0.0"
True
>>> v < "3.5.0"
True

The opposite does also work:

>>> "1.0.0" < v
True
>>> "3.5.0" > v
True

However, if you compare incomplete strings, you get a ValueError exception:

>>> v > "1.0"
Traceback (most recent call last):
...
ValueError: 1.0 is not valid SemVer string

A Version type and a dict()

You can also use a dictionary. In contrast to strings, you can have an “incomplete” version (as the other parts are set to zero):
```
>>> v > dict(major=1)
True
```
The opposite does also work:
```
>>> dict(major=1) < v
True
```
If the dictionary contains unknown keys, you get a TypeError exception:
```
>>> v > dict(major=1, unknown=42)
Traceback (most recent call last):
...
TypeError: ... got an unexpected keyword argument 'unknown'
```

Other types cannot be compared.

If you need to convert some types into others, refer to Converting a Version instance into Different Types.

The use of these comparison operators also implies that you can use builtin functions that leverage this capability; builtins including, but not limited to: max(), min() (for examples, see Getting Minimum and Maximum of Multiple Versions) and sorted().