How to check if list contains exact match of string?-CodePudding

I am trying to check if an item exists in my list, but it has to be exact match. And my code isn't working right.

import sys
fruitlist = str(sys.argv[2:]).upper()
print(sys.argv[1])
print(fruitlist)
if sys.argv[1].strip() in fruitlist:
        print(sys.argv[1], 'exact match found in list')

Now if I run it, this is what happens.

$ python3 a.py STRAW apple pear strawberry
STRAW
['APPLE', 'PEAR', 'STRAWBERRY']
STRAW exact match found in list

STRAW isn't really in my list, but because strawberry is in the list, it still says exact match found.

I want this to be false for STRAW and true only for STRAWBERRY

CodePudding user response：

fruitlist is a string, not a list.
fruitlist = str(sys.argv[2:]).upper() converts the sys.argv to str then applies the upper case.
to avoid this you can do this instead:

fruitlist = [x.upper() for x in sys.argv[2:]]

full code:

import sys
fruitlist = [x.upper() for x in sys.argv[2:]]
print(sys.argv[1])
print(fruitlist)
if sys.argv[1].strip() in fruitlist:
        print(sys.argv[1], 'exact match found in list')

CodePudding user response：

Your fruitlist isn't actually a list; it is a string. Here is the correct code, which makes it a list not a string:

import sys
fruitlist = [str(a).upper() for a in sys.argv[2:]]
print(sys.argv[1])
print(fruitlist)
if sys.argv[1].strip() in fruitlist:
        print(sys.argv[1], 'exact match found in list')

CodePudding user response：

you convert list to str and then to upper case, you must convert itmes of list to upper case:

import sys
fruitlist = [item.upper() for item in sys.argv[2:]]
if sys.argv[1].strip() in fruitlist:
        print(sys.argv[1], 'exact match found in list')

CodePudding user response：

Maybe you could try it this way:

fruitlist = str(sys.argv[2:]).upper()
inp_arg = sys.argv[1]
mask = [f==inp_arg for f in fruitlist]

if_exists = True in mask

if there is any match, the index in mask list would be True, and you can check if True is in mask

CodePudding user response：

You want to use == to check for equality:

import sys

term = sys.argv[1].strip().upper()
fruitlist = list(map(str.upper, sys.argv[2:]))


def search(term, lst):
    for item in lst:
        if item == term:
            return True


print(search(term, fruitlist))

Out:

python3 var.py foo bar baz foobar                                                                                                                                                       
>>> None

python3 var.py foo bar baz foo                                                                                                                                                           
>>> True