Suppose I have two lists, L and M. Now I want to know if they share an element.
Which would be the fastest way of asking (in python) if they share an element?
I don't care which elements they share, or how many, just if they share or not.
For example, in this case
L = [1,2,3,4,5,6]
M = [8,9,10]
I should get False, and here:
L = [1,2,3,4,5,6]
M = [5,6,7]
I should get True.
I hope the question's clear.
Thanks!
Manuel
解决方案
Or more concisely
if set(L) & set(M):
# there is an intersection
else:
# no intersection
If you really need True or False
bool(set(L) & set(M))
After running some timings, this seems to be a good option to try too
m_set=set(M)
any(x in m_set for x in L)
If the items in M or L are not hashable you have to use a less efficient approach like this
any(x in M for x in L)
Here are some timings for 100 item lists. Using sets is considerably faster when there is no intersection, and a bit slower when there is a considerable intersection.
M=range(100)
L=range(100,200)
timeit set(L) & set(M)
10000 loops, best of 3: 32.3 µs per loop
timeit any(x in M for x in L)
1000 loops, best of 3: 374 µs per loop
timeit m_set=frozenset(M);any(x in m_set for x in L)
10000 loops, best of 3: 31 µs per loop
L=range(50,150)
timeit set(L) & set(M)
10000 loops, best of 3: 18 µs per loop
timeit any(x in M for x in L)
100000 loops, best of 3: 4.88 µs per loop
timeit m_set=frozenset(M);any(x in m_set for x in L)
100000 loops, best of 3: 9.39 µs per loop
# Now for some random lists
import random
L=[random.randrange(200000) for x in xrange(1000)]
M=[random.randrange(200000) for x in xrange(1000)]
timeit set(L) & set(M)
1000 loops, best of 3: 420 µs per loop
timeit any(x in M for x in L)
10 loops, best of 3: 21.2 ms per loop
timeit m_set=set(M);any(x in m_set for x in L)
1000 loops, best of 3: 168 µs per loop
timeit m_set=frozenset(M);any(x in m_set for x in L)
1000 loops, best of 3: 371 µs per loop