[python] How do you get the logical xor of two variables in Python?

  • Python logical or: A or B: returns A if bool(A) is True, otherwise returns B
  • Python logical and: A and B: returns A if bool(A) is False, otherwise returns B

To keep most of that way of thinking, my logical xor definintion would be:

def logical_xor(a, b):
    if bool(a) == bool(b):
        return False
    else:
        return a or b

That way it can return a, b, or False:

>>> logical_xor('this', 'that')
False
>>> logical_xor('', '')
False
>>> logical_xor('this', '')
'this'
>>> logical_xor('', 'that')
'that'