No, it's `!=`, str.find() will return the matched string position, if cannot find the string, return -1.
```
[root@kvm-test ~]# python
Python 2.6.6 (r266:84292, May  1 2012, 13:52:17)
[GCC 4.4.6 20110731 (Red Hat 4.4.6-3)] on linux2
Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information.
>>> a="111"
>>> a.find("--inactive")
-1
>>> a="111--inactive"
>>> a.find("--inactive")
3
>>> a="111 --inactive"
>>> a.find("--inactive")
4
```
And yes, count is fine too, both find and count can check it.