Compare strings based on alphabetical ordering

Question

Write a function that takes two strings as arguments and returns the one which is longer. If the strings have equal length, return the one that comes first alphabetically.

This is what i have so far:

    def strings(x,y):         if len(x) > len(y):             return x         if len(x)==len(y):             return          else:             return y 

I am wondering how i would write the code so it would choose the string that comes first alphabetically for the second if statement.

Answer 1

You can compare strings directly. x<y means "does x come before y alphabetically?" So you can replace your second block with:

if len(x) == len(y) and x < y:     return x 

Answer 2

this should work:

if len(x)==len(y):    return min(x,y)