Check if multiple strings exists in list using Python

Question

How can i test if multiple strings exist in another list? Below is a code example that I started with but doesn't work properly. It should return true if even part of the string is found in the list.

I marked in the comments what the result should return. as you can see they all fail though.

def all_exist(avalue, bvalue):
    if avalue == []:
        return True
    else:
        print (all(x in avalue for x in bvalue))

items = ['greg','krista','marie']
all_exist(['greg', 'krista'], items) # true
all_exist(['gre', 'kris'], items) # true
all_exist(['gre', 'purple'], items) # false

Would it be better to convert the second list to a single string and then just test if strings in list exist in it?

Answer 1

You have to check if all of the strings in the first list is contained by any string in the second list:

def all_exist(avalue, bvalue):
    return all(any(x in y for y in bvalue) for x in avalue)

items = ['greg','krista','marie']
print(all_exist(['greg', 'krista'], items)) # -> True
print(all_exist(['gre', 'kris'], items))    # -> True
print(all_exist(['gre', 'purple'], items))  # -> False
print(all_exist([], items))                 # -> True