I would like to determine whether a list of strings can be found within another list of strings in python.
For example:
list1 = ['iguana','cat','spider','monkey','dog']
list2 = ['cat','dog']
result = False
for i in list1:
for j in list2:
if list1[i] == list2[j]
result = True
print(result)
and the result is true, but this seems to cause problems on larger lists
Is there any way to search through the first list more efficiently with cleaner code?
Your question was specifically about lists. I am presuming you are trying to ascertain if all elements in list2 are in list1. If so, then we're talking about sets, and then this would be a solution:
set1 = {"iguana", "cat", "spider", "monkey", "dog"}
set2 = {"cat", "dog"}
print(set2.issubset(set1))
There is structure called set. It has very efficient functions checking if element presents in set or not. Also it has functions checking if another set is a subset of it. For example you have two lists.
list1 = ['iguana','cat','spider','monkey','dog']
list2 = ['cat','dog']
You can create two sets from them, and check if all elements of list2 presents in list1 (if this is what you want) like this.
set1 = set(list1)
set2 = set(list2)
answer = set2.issubset(set1)
You can give this a shot using list comprehension
list1 = ['iguana','cat','spider','monkey','dog']
list2 = ['cat','dog']
if [animal for animal in list2 if animal in list1] == list2:
print(True)
else:
print(False)
or you can use .issubset. But it seems others have suggested that already.
.issubset/.issuperset(depends on which one you converted)