Python - efficiently check a list exists AND element exists in list

These are some ways to check whether an element is in a list or not.

from timeit import timeit
import numpy as np




whitelist1 = {"bar", "baz", "x", "y"}
whitelist2 = np.array(["bar", "baz", "x", "y"])

def func1():
    return {"foo"}.intersection(whitelist1)

def func2():
    return "foo" in whitelist1

def func3():
    return np.isin('foo',whitelist1)


def func4():
    return whitelist2[np.searchsorted(whitelist2, 'foo')] == 'foo'




print("func1=",timeit(func1,number=100000))
print("func2=",timeit(func2,number=100000))
print("func3",timeit(func3,number=100000))
print("func4=",timeit(func4,number=100000))

Time Taken by each function

func1= 0.01365450001321733
func2= 0.005112499929964542
func3 0.5342871999600902
func4= 0.17057700001168996

FOr randomly generated list

from timeit import timeit
import numpy as np
import random as rn
from string import ascii_letters


# randomLst = for a in range(500) rn.choices(ascii_letters,k=5)

randomLst = []
while len(randomLst) !=1000:
    radomWord = ''.join(rn.choices(ascii_letters,k=5))
    if radomWord not in randomLst:
        randomLst.append(radomWord)


whitelist1 = {*randomLst}
whitelist2 = np.array(randomLst)
randomWord = rn.choice(randomLst)
randomWords = set(rn.choices(randomLst, k=100))


def func1():
    return {randomWord}.intersection(whitelist1)

def func2():
    return randomWord in whitelist1

def func3():
    return np.isin('foo',whitelist1)


def func4():
    return whitelist2[np.searchsorted(whitelist2, randomWord)] == randomWord


def func5():
    return randomWords & whitelist1

print("func1=",timeit(func1,number=100000))
print("func2=",timeit(func2,number=100000))
print("func3",timeit(func3,number=100000))
print("func4=",timeit(func4,number=100000))
print("func5=",timeit(func5,number=1000)) # Here I change the number to 1000 because we check the 100 randoms word at one so number = 100000/100 = 1000.

Time taken

func1= 0.012835499946959317
func2= 0.005004600039683282
func3 0.5219665999757126
func4= 0.19900090002920479
func5= 0.0019264000002294779

Conclusion

1. If you want to check only one word then 'in' statement is fast

2. But, if you have a list of word then '&' statement is fast 'func5'

Note: function 5 returns a set with the words that are in the whitelist

whitelist would exist, but if it's possible None coerce with:

whitelist = whitelist or []

As shared above then you can just foo in whitelist to figure out if it's in the list. This is O(len(whitelist)) operation. Arrays are surprisingly fast (say, for at least len(whitelist) >= 1,000) in practice.

If you need it to be faster use a set, and optionally if you need to do n lookup collect your foos into a set then use intersect for O(n):

foos = { 'bar', 'none' }
whitelist = { 'bar' }
for foo in foos & whitelist:
   print(foo)

Here is the simplified solution, You can do that with two methods

whitelist = ["bar", "baz", "x", "y"]
foo = "bar"
# method 1
def WhiteListExists(foo, whitelist):
    if whitelist and foo in whitelist:
        return True
    else:
        return False

exists = WhiteListExists(foo,whitelist)

# method 2
exists = True if whitelist and foo in whitelist else False

Both methods do the same but the second one is fast.