Python Anagram Checker

Check if two strings are anagrams by comparing their character compositions in Python.

How it Works

Two strings are anagrams if they contain the same characters in identical frequencies, though arranged in a different order (e.g., "listen" and "silent").

An elegant way to check for anagrams is to clean the strings (strip whitespace and lower casing), sort their characters, and verify if the sorted lists are identical.

This sorting approach executes in O(k log k) time where k is the string length, which is optimal for short text checks.

Source Code

Checking word pairings for anagram status by letter sorting.

anagram.py

Try in Editor

def is_anagram(str1, str2):
    s1 = sorted(str1.lower().replace(" ", ""))
    s2 = sorted(str2.lower().replace(" ", ""))
    return s1 == s2

word1, word2 = "listen", "silent"
print(f"Are '{word1}' and '{word2}' anagrams? {is_anagram(word1, word2)}")

word3, word4 = "hello", "world"
print(f"Are '{word3}' and '{word4}' anagrams? {is_anagram(word3, word4)}")

Terminal Output

Are 'listen' and 'silent' anagrams? True
Are 'hello' and 'world' anagrams? False

Real-world Applications

Text analysis and linguistic comparison engines
String puzzle design and validator systems
Technical interview coding tasks

Frequently Asked Questions

Is there a way to solve this in O(n) linear time?

Yes! Instead of sorting, you can count letter frequencies using a hash map or Python's `collections.Counter` and compare the resulting frequency maps.

More Examples

Python Palindrome Checker

Check if a string or number is a palindrome (reads the same backward as forward) using Python slicing.

Regex Advanced Patterns

Named groups, lookaheads, and fuzzy matching.