If conditioning a small list in Python

Question

I want to use if condition for elements of the given list:

list = ['apple','banana','carrot']

for i in list:
    if i == 'apple' or 'banana': ##Here is problem!
        print i, 'pass'

The result is wrong:

apple pass
banana pass
carrot pass

It should be:

apple pass
banana pass

The no of elements to be tested in my problem are large, so looking for better way of handling it.

`if i == 'apple' or i == 'banana':`, think I saw these type of questions 100 times.. — Avinash Raj, Jun 16 '15 at 04:19
@AvinashRaj I want shortened form of it when the elements tobe tested are large — Roman, Jun 16 '15 at 04:21
`if i in ['apple', 'banana', 'something else', '...']` should do the trick. — awesoon, Jun 16 '15 at 04:22

score 2 · Accepted Answer · answered Jun 16 '15 at 04:22

The issue is in line -

if i == 'apple' or 'banana':

You are checking if i == 'apple' or if 'banana' is true. All strings are true, so if you do -

if 'banana':

It will always evaluate to true, and hence you are getting the issue of all values getting printed.

You need to do -

if i == 'apple' or i == 'banana':

Or you can also do -

if i in ['apple','banana']:

1 Answers1