Python : string contains NOT string in

Question

I'm looking for a one-line Python expression that performs the following search :

targets = ['habble', 'norpouf', 'blantom']
entry = "Sorphie porre blantom nushblot"

found=False
for t in targets :
    if t in entry :
        found = True
        break


print ("found" if found else "not found")

So that we can write something like this :

print("found" if entry.contains(targets) else "not found")

The example at the end using entry.contains(targets) seems to represent an opposite problem (because of the contains word choice), though it seems that's not what you meant. Anyhow, if you want to find out if entry contains all of targets, you can either do all(target in entry for target in targets) or something like set(targets).issubset(entry.split()). — John B
– John B, Commented Feb 21, 2018 at 4:36

Ajax1234 · Accepted Answer · 2018-02-21 04:04:00Z

5

You can use any:

targets = ['habble', 'norpouf', 'blantom']
entry = "Sorphie porre blantom nushblot"
result = 'found' if any(i in entry for i in targets) else 'not found'

answered Feb 21, 2018 at 4:04

Ajax1234

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3 Comments

G_M Over a year ago

Wouldn't it be better for targets to be a set?

Ajax1234 Over a year ago

@DeliriousLettuce It would be best for targets to be a set if we were checking for existence in targets, however, in this case, we are merely iterating over it.

Stephen Boston Over a year ago

@DeliriousLettuce Please show how it would play with a set. That sounds good too.

G_M · Accepted Answer · 2018-02-21 04:23:52Z

2

>>> targets = {'habble', 'norpouf', 'blantom'}
>>> entry
'Sorphie porre blantom nushblot'
>>> targets.intersection(entry.split())
{'blantom'}

One problem would be punctuation though, for example:

>>> entry = "Sorphie porre blantom! nushblot"
>>> targets.intersection(entry.split())
set()

But this would still work:

>>> 'blantom' in "Sorphie porre blantom! nushblot"
True

You could argue it the other way as well and say that in may not be the behaviour you actually want, for example:

>>> entry = "Sorphie porre NOTblantom! nushblot"
>>> 'blantom' in entry
True

It just really depends on your particular problem but I think @Ajax1234 has the advantage here.

edited Feb 21, 2018 at 4:23

answered Feb 21, 2018 at 4:12

G_M

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