How to check if a list contains another list of different values

Question

i would like to know how to check if a list encompases another list regardless of similar values contains. given the example posted below, i want to have a condition checks for existence of a list inside a list. in other words, for the values of l1 the check should return False and for l2, the check should return True

please let me know how to achieve that

code

l1 = [1,2,3]
l2 = [4,5,[6]]

Why it returns True? It would be better for those trying to answer that you elaborate on those details. Also what have you tried could be useful — Dani Mesejo, Dec 15 '22 at 11:40
`l1` _does not_ contain another list, so it should be `False`, no? — gimix, Dec 15 '22 at 11:43

score 2 · Answer 1 · answered Dec 15 '22 at 11:49

To check if one list contains another list of different values, you can use the in keyword in an if statement. For example:

l1 = [1, 2, 3]
l2 = [4, 5, [6]]

if [6] in l1:
    print("l1 contains [6]")
else:
    print("l1 does not contain [6]")

if [6] in l2:
    print("l2 contains [6]")
else:
    print("l2 does not contain [6]")

This code will check if the list [6] is contained in the lists l1 and l2, and print a message indicating whether it is or not. The output will be:

l1 does not contain [6]
l2 contains [6]

This approach works because the in keyword checks if an element is contained in a list, regardless of the values of the elements. In this case, the element being searched for is the list [6], and the in keyword will return True if this list is contained in the list being searched, and False otherwise.

Another option is to use the any function, which returns True if any element in a list satisfies a given condition, and False otherwise. For example:

l1 = [1, 2, 3]
l2 = [4, 5, [6]]

if any(isinstance(x, list) for x in l1):
    print("l1 contains a list")
else:
    print("l1 does not contain a list")

if any(isinstance(x, list) for x in l2):
    print("l2 contains a list")
else:
    print("l2 does not contain a list")

This code will check if any element in the lists `

score 2 · Answer 2 · answered Dec 15 '22 at 11:52

IIUC, you can use any in combination with isinstance:

l1 = [1, 2, 3]
l2 = [4, 5, [6]]


def contains_list(lst):
    return any(isinstance(e, list) for e in lst)


print(contains_list(l1))
print(contains_list(l2))

Output

False
True

Using isinstance is the canonical way of checking type in Python.

score 1 · Accepted Answer · answered Dec 15 '22 at 11:53

1

This is what you're looking for

def contains_lists(ls):
    return any([type(x) == list for x in ls])

answered Dec 15 '22 at 11:53

gimix

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How to check if a list contains another list of different values

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