Python: Takes two lists and returns True if they have at least one common member
Python List: Exercise-11 with Solution
Write a Python function that takes two lists and returns True if they have at least one common member.
Pictorial Presentation:

Sample Solution-1:
Python Code:
def common_data(list1, list2):
result = False
for x in list1:
for y in list2:
if x == y:
result = True
return result
print(common_data([1,2,3,4,5], [5,6,7,8,9]))
print(common_data([1,2,3,4,5], [6,7,8,9]))
Sample Output:
True None
Explanation:
The above code defines a function called "common_data" that takes two lists as arguments: list1 and list2. The function initializes a Boolean variable result to False.
The function then loops through each element in list1 and list2 using nested for loops. If the current element in list1 is equal to the current element in list2, the function sets result to True and immediately returns the result using the return statement. This means that the function will stop execution as soon as it finds a common element between the two lists.
print(common_data([1,2,3,4,5], [5,6,7,8,9])) print(common_data([1,2,3,4,5], [6,7,8,9]))
The above lines call the "common_data" function twice, with different sets of input lists.
The first call passes [1, 2, 3, 4, 5] and [5, 6, 7, 8, 9] as arguments. Since both lists have the element 5 in common, the function sets result to True and immediately returns it. Therefore, the first call to common_data will print True.
The second call passes [1, 2, 3, 4, 5] and [6, 7, 8, 9] as arguments. Since there are no elements that appear in both lists, the function will not set result to True and will not return a value. Therefore, the second call to common_data will print None.
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Sample Solution-2:
- Check if any value in lsts is contained in nums using a for loop.
- Return True if any one value is found, False otherwise.
Python Code:
def test_includes_any(nums, lsts):
for x in lsts:
if x in nums:
return True
return False
print(test_includes_any([10, 20, 30, 40, 50, 60], [22, 42]))
print(test_includes_any([10, 20, 30, 40, 50, 60], [20, 80]))
Sample Output:
False True
Explanation:
The above code defines a function called test_includes_any that takes two arguments: a list of integers nums, and a list of lists of integers lsts.
The function then loops through each list x in lsts, and for each list it checks if any of the integers in the list are also in nums. If it finds a match, it returns True.
If it loops through all the lists in lsts without finding a match, it returns False.
print(test_includes_any([10, 20, 30, 40, 50, 60], [22, 42])) print(test_includes_any([10, 20, 30, 40, 50, 60], [20, 80]))
In the first call, nums is [10, 20, 30, 40, 50, 60] and lsts is [[22, 42]]. The function checks if any of the integers in [22, 42] are in [10, 20, 30, 40, 50, 60], and since 22 or 42 not present in second list, it returns False.
In the second call, nums is [10, 20, 30, 40, 50, 60] and lsts is [[20, 80]]. The function checks if any of the integers in [20, 80] are in [10, 20, 30, 40, 50, 60], and since 20 is in both lists, it returns True.
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Python: Tips of the Day
Given a predicate function, fn, and a prop string, this curried function will then take an object to inspect by calling the property and passing it to the predicate:
Example:
def tips_check_prop(fn, prop): return lambda obj: fn(obj[prop]) check_age = tips_check_prop(lambda x: x >= 25, 'age') user = {'name': 'Owen', 'age': 25} print(check_age(user))
Output:
True
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