# cf.Constructs.equals¶

Constructs.equals(other, rtol=None, atol=None, verbose=None, ignore_data_type=False, ignore_fill_value=False, ignore_compression=True, _ignore_type=False, _return_axis_map=False)[source]

Whether two Constructs instances are the same.

Two real numbers x and y are considered equal if |x-y|<=atol+rtol|y|, where atol (the tolerance on absolute differences) and rtol (the tolerance on relative differences) are positive, typically very small numbers. See the atol and rtol parameters.

Any compression is ignored by default, with only the arrays in their uncompressed forms being compared. See the ignore_compression parameter.

Any type of object may be tested but equality is only possible with another Constructs construct, or a subclass of one.

NetCDF elements, such as netCDF variable and dimension names, do not constitute part of the CF data model and so are not checked on any construct.

New in version 1.7.0.

Parameters
other:

The object to compare for equality.

atol: float, optional

The tolerance on absolute differences between real numbers. The default value is set by the cfdm.ATOL function.

rtol: float, optional

The tolerance on relative differences between real numbers. The default value is set by the cfdm.RTOL function.

ignore_fill_value: bool, optional

If True then the _FillValue and missing_value properties are omitted from the comparison for the metadata constructs.

verbose: int or None, optional

If an integer from 0 to 3, corresponding to increasing verbosity (else -1 as a special case of maximal and extreme verbosity), set for the duration of the method call (only) as the minimum severity level cut-off of displayed log messages, regardless of the global configured cfdm.LOG_LEVEL.

Else, if None (the default value), log messages will be filtered out, or otherwise, according to the value of the cfdm.LOG_LEVEL setting.

Overall, the higher a non-negative integer that is set (up to a maximum of 3) the more description that is printed to convey information about differences that lead to inequality.

ignore_data_type: bool, optional

If True then ignore the data types in all numerical comparisons. By default different numerical data types imply inequality, regardless of whether the elements are within the tolerance for equality.

ignore_compression: bool, optional

If False then the compression type and, if applicable, the underlying compressed arrays must be the same, as well as the arrays in their uncompressed forms. By default only the arrays in their uncompressed forms are compared.

Returns
bool

Whether the two instances are equal.

Examples:

>>> x.equals(x)
True
>>> x.equals(x.copy())
True
>>> x.equals('something else')
False