how to compare a string with items in a list , character by character in python

Question

I have a list and I want to compare user input with that list , but character by character. for example user can only input some character and leave the rest by dots. (for example : V...r..n ) How do I can compare strings character by character, and if it only includes all characters by user input (skip the dots)

list1 = ["Vaporeon", "Jolteon", "Flareon", "Espeon", "Umbreon", "Leafeon", "Glaceon", "Sylveon"]
s = input() # for example "V...r..n"
for i in list1:
 # if s include exactly characters in i (skip the dots)
 print(i)

Answer 1

You can use regular expressions:

import re
list1 = ["Vaporeon", "Jolteon", "Flareon", "Espeon", "Umbreon", "Leafeon", "Glaceon", "Sylveon"]
s = input() # for example "V...r..n"
re_s = re.compile(''.join('.' if ch == '.' else re.escape(ch) for ch in s) + '$')
for i in list1:
 if re_s.match(i):
 print(i)

EDIT: Another option that seems missing from the other answers is to use itertools.zip_longest:

from itertools import zip_longest
list1 = ["Vaporeon", "Jolteon", "Flareon", "Espeon", "Umbreon", "Leafeon", "Glaceon", "Sylveon"]
s = input() # for example "V...r..n"
for i in list1:
 if all(c1 == c2 for c1, c2 in zip_longest(i, s) if c2 != '.'):
 print(i)

Answer 2

Here's one way. There are two steps. First make a dictionary mapping indices to relevant characters. Then check for equality for those indices.

L = ["Vaporeon", "Jolteon", "Flareon", "Espeon", "Umbreon", "Leafeon", "Glaceon", "Sylveon"]
s = input()
d = {k: v for k, v in enumerate(s) if v != '.'}
for item in L:
 if (len(s) == len(item)) and all(item[k] == v for k, v in d.items()):
 print(item)
# V...r..n
# Vaporeon

• RoadRunner: I guess you could have d outside the loop here, so it doesnt get created everytime on each iteration.

Answer 3

There are several ways to solve it, with regex, with the solution of jpp, or with this one:

list1 = ["Vaporeon", "Jolteon", "Flareon", "Espeon", "Umbreon", "Leafeon", "Glaceon", "Sylveon"]
s = input() # for example "V...r..n"
for word in list1:
 l = len(word)
 c = 0
 flag = True
 while c < l and flag:
 if s[c] != '.':
 if s[c] != word[c]:
 flag = False
 c += 1
 if flag:
 print(word)

Answer 4

There are some hard looking solutions here. I found this to be the easiest and working solution.

list1 = ["Vaporeon", "Jolteon", "Flareon", "Espeon", "Umbreon", "Leafeon", "Glaceon", "Sylveon"]
s = input() # for example "V...r..n"
matchedList = []
for i in list1:
 inputInList = True
 for letter in s:
 if not letter in i:
 inputInList = False
 break
 if inputInList:
 matchedList.append(i)
print(matchedList)

• politinsa: Did you say "working" solution ? Because it doesn't with V...r..n
• Koyaanis: Weird, it works well here. Do you literally type the dots?