I've always thought of the if not x is None
version to be more clear, but Google's style guide and PEP-8 both use if x is not None
. Is there any minor performance difference (I'm assuming not), and is there any case where one really doesn't fit (making the other a clear winner for my convention)?*
*I'm referring to any singleton, rather than just None
.
...to compare singletons like None. Use is or is not.
There's no performance difference, as they compile to the same bytecode:
>>> import dis
>>> dis.dis("not x is None")
1 0 LOAD_NAME 0 (x)
2 LOAD_CONST 0 (None)
4 COMPARE_OP 9 (is not)
6 RETURN_VALUE
>>> dis.dis("x is not None")
1 0 LOAD_NAME 0 (x)
2 LOAD_CONST 0 (None)
4 COMPARE_OP 9 (is not)
6 RETURN_VALUE
Stylistically, I try to avoid not x is y
, a human reader might misunderstand it as (not x) is y
. If I write x is not y
then there is no ambiguity.