I have this list:
item = ['AAA:60', 'BBB:10', 'CCC:65', 'DDD:70', 'EEE:70']
and then I get this string passed to me:
widget = 'BBB'
I'd like to find the entry in item based on widget.
I want to find the entry in the list if widget is contained in any of the list entries. Something where I can use item[i] and preserve the list for the loop it will endure.
Final output would be the list entry itself, BBB:10. (In the example provided.)
You can try:
>>> item = ['AAA:60', 'BBB:10', 'CCC:65', 'DDD:70', 'EEE:70']
>>> widget = 'BBB'
>>> next(i for i in item if i.startswith(widget))
'BBB:10'
Or if it doesn't necessarily have to begin with "BBB" then you can change the condition to
>>> next(i for i in item if widget in i)
'BBB:10'
>>> next(idx for idx,i in enumerate(item) if widget in i)
1
EDIT: Please also read @PaulMcGuire's answer. In terms of design that is how it should be done.
IF
next(idx for idx,i in enumerate(item) if widget in i).
startswith or in testing. Safer to test for if i.startswith(widget+':'). This assumes that ':' is not valid as a widget identifier - probably a safe assumption given the ':' delimiter in the item list.If you will be doing lots of this searching, please revisit your design. This really should be a dict where the widget name is the key and the 60, 10, 65, etc. values would be the values. You could construct this from your current list using
item_dict = dict((k,int(v)) for k,v in (i.rsplit(':') for i in item))
Then you could easily lookup values using:
item_dict['BBB'] # 10 (already converted to an int)
in operator now does predictable test for existence:
'BBB' in item_dict # True
'BB' in item_dict # False