Question

Write a program that takes in two strings and returns the longest string. If they are the same length then return the second string.

Answer 1

A Python program is provided that defines a function to determine the longest of two input strings or return the second string if they are the same length. The program uses the len function to compare string lengths and decides which string to return based on the comparison.

Step-by-step explanation:

The question asks for a program that compares two strings and returns the longest string, or the second string if they are of equal length. This problem falls under the category of programming, which is part of Computers and Technology. Here is a simple Python program that accomplishes this:

# Function to return the longest string or the second one if both have equal length
def longest_string(str1, str2):
if len(str1) >= len(str2):
return str2
else:
return str1

# Example usage
string1 = input("Enter the first string: ")
string2 = input("Enter the second string: ")
print("The longest or second string of equal length is:", longest_string(string1, string2))

This program defines a function longest_string that takes two strings as inputs. It compares their lengths using the len function. If the first string is longer or both strings are the same length, the function returns the second string; otherwise, it returns the first string.