python - Why does checking a variable against multiple values with `OR` only check the first value?

I want to check if a variable has one of multiple values. I'm confused about why or doesn't work in this situation. I was following a tutorial that gave the example if (a or b):, but when I try to do this it only checks the variable against the first value. What is wrong with my check?

name = raw_input('Please type in your name:')

if len(name) < 5:
    print "Your name has fewer than 5 characters"
elif len(name) == 5:
    print "Your name has exactly 5 characters"

    if name == ("Jesse" or "jesse"):
        print "Hey Jesse!"
else:
    print "Your name has greater than 5 characters"

Answer

("Jesse" or "jesse")

The above expression tests whether or not "Jesse" evaluates to True. If it does, then the expression will return it; otherwise, it will return "jesse". The expression is equivalent to writing:

"Jesse" if "Jesse" else "jesse"

Because "Jesse" is a non-empty string though, it will always evaluate to True and thus be returned:

>>> bool("Jesse")  # Non-empty strings evaluate to True in Python
True
>>> bool("")  # Empty strings evaluate to False
False

>>>
>>> ("Jesse" or "jesse")
'Jesse'
>>> ("" or "jesse")
'jesse'
>>>

This means that the expression:

name == ("Jesse" or "jesse")

is basically equivalent to writing this:

name == "Jesse"

---

In order to fix your problem, you can use the in operator:

# Test whether the value of name can be found in the tuple ("Jesse", "jesse")
if name in ("Jesse", "jesse"):

Or, you can lowercase the value of name with str.lower and then compare it to "jesse" directly:

# This will also handle inputs such as "JeSSe", "jESSE", "JESSE", etc.
if name.lower() == "jesse":