Python: Find the strings in a list, starting with a given prefix

Last update on April 17 2025 13:03:11 (UTC/GMT +8 hours)

Find Strings with Prefix

Write a Python program to find strings in a given list starting with a given prefix.

Input:
[( ca,('cat', 'car', 'fear', 'center'))]
Output:
['cat', 'car']

Input:
[(do,('cat', 'dog', 'shatter', 'donut', 'at', 'todo'))]
Output:
['dog', 'donut']

Visual Presentation:

Python: Find the strings in a list, starting with a given prefix.

Sample Solution:

Python Code:

# License: https://bit.ly/3oLErEI

# Define a function named 'test' that takes a list of strings 'strs' and a prefix 'prefix' as input
def test(strs, prefix):
    # Use a list comprehension to filter strings in 'strs' that start with the given 'prefix'
    return [s for s in strs if s.startswith(prefix)]

# Create a list of strings 'strs' with specific elements
strs = ['cat', 'car', 'fear', 'center']

# Assign a specific prefix 'prefix' to the variable
prefix = "ca"

# Print the original list of strings
print("Original strings:")
print(strs)

# Print the starting prefix
print("Starting prefix:", prefix)

# Print a message indicating the operation to be performed on the list
print("Strings in the said list starting with a given prefix:")

# Print the result of the test function applied to the 'strs' list with the given prefix
print(test(strs, prefix))

# Create a different list of strings 'strs' with specific elements
strs = ['cat', 'dog', 'shatter', 'donut', 'at', 'todo']

# Assign a different prefix 'prefix' to the variable
prefix = "do"

# Print the original list of strings
print("\nOriginal strings:")
print(strs)

# Print the updated starting prefix
print("Starting prefix:", prefix)

# Print a message indicating the operation to be performed on the list
print("Strings in the said list starting with a given prefix:")

# Print the result of the test function applied to the modified 'strs' list with the updated prefix
print(test(strs, prefix))

Sample Output:

Original strings:
['cat', 'car', 'fear', 'center']
Starting prefix: ca
Strings in the said list starting with a given prefix:
['cat', 'car']

Original strings:
['cat', 'dog', 'shatter', 'donut', 'at', 'todo']
Starting prefix: do
Strings in the said list starting with a given prefix:
['dog', 'donut']

Flowchart:

For more Practice: Solve these Related Problems:

Write a Python program to search through a list of strings and return those that start with a given prefix.
Write a Python program using the startswith() method to filter strings that begin with a specified substring.
Write a Python program to perform a case-insensitive search for strings in a list that have a given prefix.
Write a Python program to implement this search without using built-in string methods by comparing slices.

Go to:

Previous: Test whether the given strings are palindromes.
Next: Find the lengths of a list of non-empty strings.

Python Code Editor :

Have another way to solve this solution? Contribute your code (and comments) through Disqus.