How use contains in python?

Python String class has __contains__() function that we can use to check if it contains another string or not.

Python String contains

Python string __contains__() is an instance method and returns boolean value True or False depending on whether the string object contains the specified string object or not. Note that the Python string contains() method is case sensitive. Let’s look at a simple example for string __contains__() method.

s = 'abc'

print('s contains a =', s.__contains__('a'))
print('s contains A =', s.__contains__('A'))
print('s contains X =', s.__contains__('X'))

Output:

s contains a = True
s contains A = False
s contains X = False

We can use __contains__() function as str class method too.

print(str.__contains__('ABC', 'A'))
print(str.__contains__('ABC', 'D'))

Output:

True
False

Let’s look at another example where we will ask the user to enter both the strings and check if the first string contains the second string or not.

input_str1 = input('Please enter first input string\n')

input_str2 = input('Please enter second input string\n')

print('First Input String Contains Second String? ', input_str1.__contains__(input_str2))

Output: Please enter first input string JournalDev is Nice Please enter second input string Dev First Input String Contains Second String? True

How use contains in python?

You can checkout more Python string examples from our GitHub Repository.

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Does Python have a string contains substring method?

99% of use cases will be covered using the keyword, in, which returns True or False:

'substring' in any_string

For the use case of getting the index, use str.find (which returns -1 on failure, and has optional positional arguments):

start = 0
stop = len(any_string)
any_string.find('substring', start, stop)

or str.index (like find but raises ValueError on failure):

start = 100 
end = 1000
any_string.index('substring', start, end)

Explanation

Use the in comparison operator because

  1. the language intends its usage, and
  2. other Python programmers will expect you to use it.
>>> 'foo' in '**foo**'
True

The opposite (complement), which the original question asked for, is not in:

>>> 'foo' not in '**foo**' # returns False
False

This is semantically the same as not 'foo' in '**foo**' but it's much more readable and explicitly provided for in the language as a readability improvement.

Avoid using __contains__

The "contains" method implements the behavior for in. This example,

str.__contains__('**foo**', 'foo')

returns True. You could also call this function from the instance of the superstring:

'**foo**'.__contains__('foo')

But don't. Methods that start with underscores are considered semantically non-public. The only reason to use this is when implementing or extending the in and not in functionality (e.g. if subclassing str):

class NoisyString(str):
    def __contains__(self, other):
        print(f'testing if "{other}" in "{self}"')
        return super(NoisyString, self).__contains__(other)

ns = NoisyString('a string with a substring inside')

and now:

>>> 'substring' in ns
testing if "substring" in "a string with a substring inside"
True

Don't use find and index to test for "contains"

Don't use the following string methods to test for "contains":

>>> '**foo**'.index('foo')
2
>>> '**foo**'.find('foo')
2

>>> '**oo**'.find('foo')
-1
>>> '**oo**'.index('foo')

Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "", line 1, in 
    '**oo**'.index('foo')
ValueError: substring not found

Other languages may have no methods to directly test for substrings, and so you would have to use these types of methods, but with Python, it is much more efficient to use the in comparison operator.

Also, these are not drop-in replacements for in. You may have to handle the exception or -1 cases, and if they return 0 (because they found the substring at the beginning) the boolean interpretation is False instead of True.

If you really mean not any_string.startswith(substring) then say it.

Performance comparisons

We can compare various ways of accomplishing the same goal.

import timeit

def in_(s, other):
    return other in s

def contains(s, other):
    return s.__contains__(other)

def find(s, other):
    return s.find(other) != -1

def index(s, other):
    try:
        s.index(other)
    except ValueError:
        return False
    else:
        return True



perf_dict = {
'in:True': min(timeit.repeat(lambda: in_('superstring', 'str'))),
'in:False': min(timeit.repeat(lambda: in_('superstring', 'not'))),
'__contains__:True': min(timeit.repeat(lambda: contains('superstring', 'str'))),
'__contains__:False': min(timeit.repeat(lambda: contains('superstring', 'not'))),
'find:True': min(timeit.repeat(lambda: find('superstring', 'str'))),
'find:False': min(timeit.repeat(lambda: find('superstring', 'not'))),
'index:True': min(timeit.repeat(lambda: index('superstring', 'str'))),
'index:False': min(timeit.repeat(lambda: index('superstring', 'not'))),
}

And now we see that using in is much faster than the others. Less time to do an equivalent operation is better:

>>> perf_dict
{'in:True': 0.16450627865128808,
 'in:False': 0.1609668098178645,
 '__contains__:True': 0.24355481654697542,
 '__contains__:False': 0.24382793854783813,
 'find:True': 0.3067379407923454,
 'find:False': 0.29860888058124146,
 'index:True': 0.29647137792585454,
 'index:False': 0.5502287584545229}

How can in be faster than __contains__ if in uses __contains__?

This is a fine follow-on question.

Let's disassemble functions with the methods of interest:

>>> from dis import dis
>>> dis(lambda: 'a' in 'b')
  1           0 LOAD_CONST               1 ('a')
              2 LOAD_CONST               2 ('b')
              4 COMPARE_OP               6 (in)
              6 RETURN_VALUE
>>> dis(lambda: 'b'.__contains__('a'))
  1           0 LOAD_CONST               1 ('b')
              2 LOAD_METHOD              0 (__contains__)
              4 LOAD_CONST               2 ('a')
              6 CALL_METHOD              1
              8 RETURN_VALUE

so we see that the .__contains__ method has to be separately looked up and then called from the Python virtual machine - this should adequately explain the difference.

Is there a Contains method in Python?

Python string __contains__() is an instance method and returns boolean value True or False depending on whether the string object contains the specified string object or not. Note that the Python string contains() method is case sensitive.

What does __ contains __ mean in Python?

The __contains__ Method in Python Python __contains__ is a method of the String class in Python. It can check whether a given substring is part of a string or not. It is a magical method. Such methods are not meant to be called explicitly and are called as part of other inbuilt operations.

How do I contain a string in Python?

To check if a string contains a substring in Python using the in operator, we simply invoke it on the superstring: fullstring = "StackAbuse" substring = "tack" if substring in fullstring: print("Found!") else: print("Not found!")

How do you check if a string contains a word Python?

The simplest way to check if a string contains a substring in Python is to use the in operator. This will return True or False depending on whether the substring is found. For example: sentence = 'There are more trees on Earth than stars in the Milky Way galaxy' word = 'galaxy' if word in sentence: print('Word found.