How do I check if words in a string are elements in a list or lists?

Question

test_string = ("this is a test")

test_list = [dog, cat, test, is, water]

How do I see if 'this' or 'is' or 'a' or 'test' is in test_list?

possible duplicate of [How to check if a string contains an element from a list in Python](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/6531482/how-to-check-if-a-string-contains-an-element-from-a-list-in-python) — Parker, Oct 19 '14 at 22:05
shouldn't test_list = [dog, cat, test, is, water] rather be test_list = ['dog', 'cat', 'test', 'is', 'water']? — tagoma, Oct 19 '14 at 22:21

score 0 · Answer 1 · answered Oct 19 '14 at 22:02

Use str.split to split the string and use any to see if any of the words in the string are in your list:

 test_string = ("this is a test")

test_list = ["dog", "cat", "test", "is","water"]
print(any(x in test_list for x in test_string.split()))



In [9]: test_string = ("this is a test")

In [10]: test_string.split()
Out[10]: ['this', 'is', 'a', 'test'] # becomes a list of individual words

Parker · Answer 2 · 2014-10-19T22:15:28.483

0

You can use any for this

inlist = any(ele in test_list for ele in test_string.split())

inlist will be True or False, depending on whether or not it's in the list.

Example:

>>test_string = ("this is a test")
>>test_list = ['dog', 'cat', 'water']
>>inlist = any(ele in test_string for ele in test_list)
>>print inlist
False

>>test_string = ("this is a test")
>>test_list = ['dog', 'cat', 'is', 'test' 'water']
>>inlist = any(ele in test_string for ele in test_list)
>>print inlist
True

edited Oct 19 '14 at 22:15

answered Oct 19 '14 at 22:04

Parker

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nope, you are iterating over each character not each word – Padraic Cunningham Oct 19 '14 at 22:05
I'm iterating over each item in the list and checking if it in the string at all. – Parker Oct 19 '14 at 22:08
try `s="this is a test" print("th" in s)` – Padraic Cunningham Oct 19 '14 at 22:10
I interpreted OP's question as just wanting to see if any element in the list appears at all, they didn't clarify. If the OP wants to check if a full word matches, you're correct – Parker Oct 19 '14 at 22:12
I think it is pretty clear that they would want to match a full word – Padraic Cunningham Oct 19 '14 at 22:13
Ah, misread them as asking for checking if a work from list is in string, they wanted vice versa. Fixed – Parker Oct 19 '14 at 22:14
Let us [continue this discussion in chat](http://chat.stackoverflow.com/rooms/63318/discussion-between-parker-and-padraic-cunningham). – Parker Oct 19 '14 at 22:15

score 0 · Answer 3 · answered Oct 19 '14 at 22:24

0

What you're asking is just whether the set intersection is nonempty.

>>> set(test_string.split(' ')).intersection(set(test_list))
set(['test', 'is'])

answered Oct 19 '14 at 22:24

Chris Martin

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score 0 · Answer 4 · answered Oct 19 '14 at 22:41

One option is regex, eg

import re

# Test string
test_string = 'this is a test'

# Words to be matched
test_list = ['dog', 'cat', 'test', 'is', 'water']

# Container for matching words
yes = []

# Loop through the list of words
for words in test_list:
    match = re.search(words, test_string)
    if match:
        yes.append(words)

# Output results
print str(yes) + ' were matched'

#['test', 'is'] were matched

How do I check if words in a string are elements in a list or lists?

4 Answers4