Find matching partial substring in python

Question

I want to check if any element in noun matches any one of the elements in tables.

First element in nous in "devices". Clearly it matches with "projname:dataset.devices". If a match is found, loop should break, else it should check whether second element in noun, which is "today" matches any element in the tables.

    tables = ["projname:dataset.devices","projname:dataset.attempts"]

    noun = [devices,today]

I tried it with "noun in tables", i got empty result. Is there any other method that I can try with?

Thanks in advance !!

Answer 1

A simple use of any(n in s for n in nouns for s in tables) would suffice for a check.

If you actually want the matching item, you could write this quick function:

>>> def first_match(nouns, tables):
...     for n in nouns:
...         for t in tables:
...             if n in t:
...                 return t
...
>>> first_match(nouns,tables)
'projname:dataset.devices'

Answer 2

Task:

1. 'Check if any element in noun matches any one of the elements in tables'
2. 'If any function returns true, I have to get the corresponding element in tables'

Data:

tables = ["projname:dataset.devices","projname:dataset.attempts"]
noun = ['devices','today']

Generator expression:

This only gives the first match, as per OP request.

try:
    print(next(t for n in noun for t in tables if n in t))
except StopIteration:
    pass

Output:

   'projname:dataset.devices'