Checking if any instance of string in list

Question

POarray = ['P.O. Box', 'P.O. BOX', 'P.O. box', 'p.o. box', 'PO Box', 'PO BOX', 'PO box', 'po box', 'P.O Box', 'P.O BOX', 'P.O box', 'p.o box']

if Resp_Info.r3.val in POarray:
     error('Sorry, but we cannot except PO boxes.')

I'm trying to raise an error if a PO Box is inserted into a value field. However, PO boxes usually include numbers as well, like "PO Box 1167". How do I write my validation to check just for those instances in my string, and ignore the numbers.

Answer 1

How about

if "pobox" in str(Resp_Info.r3.val).lower().replace(".", "").replace(" ", ""):
    print "err"

Using Regex:

import re
if "pobox" in re.sub('\W+','', "PO Box #1234" ).lower():
    print "err"

Answer 2

You can use re module:

import re

pattern = re.compile('p\.?o\.?\sbox', re.IGNORECASE)

if re.search(pattern, Resp_Info.r3.val):
    error('Sorry, but we cannot except PO boxes.')