How to check if list contains exact match of string?

Question

I am trying to check if an item exists in my list, but it has to be exact match. And my code isn't working right.

import sys
fruitlist = str(sys.argv[2:]).upper()
print(sys.argv[1])
print(fruitlist)
if sys.argv[1].strip() in fruitlist:
        print(sys.argv[1], 'exact match found in list')

Now if I run it, this is what happens.

$ python3 a.py STRAW apple pear strawberry
STRAW
['APPLE', 'PEAR', 'STRAWBERRY']
STRAW exact match found in list

STRAW isn't really in my list, but because strawberry is in the list, it still says exact match found.

I want this to be false for STRAW and true only for STRAWBERRY

Answer 1

fruitlist is a string, not a list.
fruitlist = str(sys.argv[2:]).upper() converts the sys.argv to str then applies the upper case.
to avoid this you can do this instead:

fruitlist = [x.upper() for x in sys.argv[2:]]

full code:

import sys
fruitlist = [x.upper() for x in sys.argv[2:]]
print(sys.argv[1])
print(fruitlist)
if sys.argv[1].strip() in fruitlist:
        print(sys.argv[1], 'exact match found in list')

Answer 2

Your fruitlist isn't actually a list; it is a string. Here is the correct code, which makes it a list not a string:

import sys
fruitlist = [str(a).upper() for a in sys.argv[2:]]
print(sys.argv[1])
print(fruitlist)
if sys.argv[1].strip() in fruitlist:
        print(sys.argv[1], 'exact match found in list')

Answer 3

Maybe you could try it this way:

fruitlist = str(sys.argv[2:]).upper()
inp_arg = sys.argv[1]
mask = [f==inp_arg for f in fruitlist]

if_exists = True in mask

if there is any match, the index in mask list would be True, and you can check if True is in mask

Answer 4

You want to use == to check for equality:

import sys

term = sys.argv[1].strip().upper()
fruitlist = list(map(str.upper, sys.argv[2:]))


def search(term, lst):
    for item in lst:
        if item == term:
            return True


print(search(term, fruitlist))

Out:

python3 var.py foo bar baz foobar                                                                                                                                                       
>>> None

python3 var.py foo bar baz foo                                                                                                                                                           
>>> True

Answer 5

you convert list to str and then to upper case, you must convert itmes of list to upper case:

import sys
fruitlist = [item.upper() for item in sys.argv[2:]]
if sys.argv[1].strip() in fruitlist:
        print(sys.argv[1], 'exact match found in list')