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sys-version-cmp-str3 (YTT103)#

Derived from the flake8-2020 linter.

What it does#

Checks for comparisons that test sys.version against string literals, such that the comparison will evaluate to False on Python 3.10 or later.

Why is this bad?#

Comparing sys.version to a string is error-prone and may cause subtle bugs, as the comparison will be performed lexicographically, not semantically. For example, sys.version > "3.9" will evaluate to False when using Python 3.10, as "3.10" is lexicographically "less" than "3.9".

Instead, use sys.version_info to access the current major and minor version numbers as a tuple, which can be compared to other tuples without issue.

Example#

import sys

sys.version > "3.9"  # `False` on Python 3.10.

Use instead:

import sys

sys.version_info > (3, 9)  # `True` on Python 3.10.

References#