is there a meaningful difference between:
z='xxx'
if z in ['xxx', 'yyy']:
if 'xxx' or 'yyy' in z:
will 'in' allow a partial and split string match?
if 'xx yy' in 'xx zz yy':
I spent all day bug hunting and it boiled down to the above. Otherwise the code is line for line identical. Worst part is both scripts worked, I was just having a hell of a time consolidating them. Both other people's legacy code on legacy/partial data with limited documentation. I fixed it in the end, but these are my lingering questions.
Welcome Crash
Yes, there is a meaningful difference
z='xxx'
z in ['xxx', 'yyy']
is checking if the list contains 'xxx' which it does
if 'xxx' or 'yyy' in z:
will always return True since non-emptystrings are truthy; ie
if ('xxx'): is True
You could re-write it more explicitly as
if 'xxx' or ('yyy' in z):
I believe what you'd be looking for is more like this:
if any([i in z for i in ['xxx', 'yyy']):
which checks if either 'xxx' or 'yyy' is in z
FWIW; there's also:
if all([i in z for i in ['xxx', 'yyy']):
regarding your question of
if 'xx yy' in 'xx zz yy':
that would only check for the exact string literal; if you wanted to look for both xx or yy there are a number of ways you could handle it but I would probably turn the first string into a lists and check the elements like this:
if all([i in 'xx zz yy' for i in 'xx yy'.split(" ")]):
which is the same as
if all([i in 'xx zz yy' for i in ['xx', 'yy']):