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21.9: The in Operator

  • Page ID
    16992
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    The word in is a boolean operator that takes two strings and returns True if the first appears as a substring in the second:

    >>> 'a' in 'banana'
    True
    >>> 'seed' in 'banana'
    False
    

    For example, the following function prints all the letters from word1 that also appear in word2:

    def in_both(word1, word2):
        for letter in word1:
            if letter in word2:
                print letter
    

    With well-chosen variable names, Python sometimes reads like English. You could read this loop, “for (each) letter in (the first) word, if (the) letter (appears) in (the second) word, print (the) letter.”

    Here’s what you get if you compare apples and oranges:

    >>> in_both('apples', 'oranges')
    a
    e
    s

    This page titled 21.9: The in Operator is shared under a CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 license and was authored, remixed, and/or curated by Allen B. Downey (Green Tea Press) .

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