Say I have two lists:

list1=[a,b,c,d,e,f,a,b,c]
list2=[a,c,d]

How could I compare list1 and list2 such that I would get an output like:

list3=[match,-,match,match,-,-,-,-,-]
So that it goes in order
Here's my code:

h=[]
for i in range(len(change2)):
	for j in range(len(atom)):
		if atom[j]==atom[i]:
			h.append("H")
		else:
			h.append("-")
print h

Both change2 and atom have letters with a particular order. atom has 479 letters and change2 has 188 letters. I want an output that is a list with 479 elements. I want to scan through atom until the first element is found in change2. I want the list to have elements "H" if they match and "-" if they do not. My code is giving me a huge list! I'm not sure how to make it ordered.

Thanks!

Recommended Answers

All 6 Replies

Add a print statement so you know what is being compared, and hence if the append is correct or not. Also, you should first check that both lists are the same length.

h=[]
for i in range(len(change2)):
	for j in range(len(atom)):
                print "comparing" atom[j], atom[i]
		if atom[j]==atom[i]:
			h.append("H")
		else:
			h.append("-")
print h

Add a print statement so you know what is being compared, and hence if the append is correct or not. Also, you should first check that both lists are the same length.

h=[]
for i in range(len(change2)):
	for j in range(len(atom)):
                print "comparing" atom[j], atom[i]
		if atom[j]==atom[i]:
			h.append("H")
		else:
			h.append("-")
print h

Both lists are not the same length. I want to compare the first element in the list change2 to the elements in list atom until a match is found. I want the match to append "H" to a new list (the same length as atoms) and those that don't match append "-". Then go on to the next element in list change2.

I suggest

#python 2 and 3

change2 = list('abcdefabc')
atom = list('acd')

atomset = set(atom)
h = ['H' if x in atomset else '-' for x in change2]

assert(''.join(h) == 'H-HH--H-H')

I suggest

#python 2 and 3

change2 = list('abcdefabc')
atom = list('acd')

atomset = set(atom)
h = ['H' if x in atomset else '-' for x in change2]

assert(''.join(h) == 'H-HH--H-H')

That's not working either. What is the assert doing?

found = - 1
for search in list2:
    if seach in list1[found+1:]:
        found = list1.index(search)
       #handle correct case
    else:
       # not found case

Show effort by finishing the code. This code as is would start again from begining if there is not matching letter in list2.

That's not working either. What is the assert doing?

why do you say it's not working ? It's working for me and python 2.6 or 3.1. The assert checks that the resulting list is H - H H - H - H.

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