Python Loop Iteration issue

Question

Two versions, return opposite answers, but always one comes out wrong. I'm not sure where I've gone wrong. I've tried a series of other options, but this seems to get the closest. EDIT: Needs to be in a loop

goals: identify element in list, identify when element is not in list, identify when list is [], return strings accordingly.

def search_for_string(a_list, search_term):
    i=0
    for search_term in a_list:
        i += 1
        if a_list[i] == search_term: 
            return 'string found!' 
        elif a_list[i] != search_term:
            return 'string not found2'
    if len(a_list) == 0:
        return 'string not found'

apple = search_for_string(['a', 'b', 'c'], 'd')
print(apple)


def search_for_string(a_list, search_term):
    i=0
    for search_term in a_list:
        if a_list[i] == search_term: 
            return 'string found!' 
        elif a_list[i] != search_term:
            return 'string not found2'
        i += 1
    if len(a_list) == 0:
        return 'string not found'

apple = search_for_string(['a', 'b', 'c'], 'd')
print(apple)

other tests:

apple = search_for_string(['a', 'b', 'c'], 'b')
apple = search_for_string([], 'b')

Answer 1

Python makes your life super easy for this sort of thing:

def search_for_string(a_list, search_term):
    if search_term in a_list:
        return 'string found!'
    return 'string not found'

Answer 2

There are few things wrong and Non-Pythonic in your code:

def search_for_string2(a_list, search_term):
    i=0  # <----- Not Pythonic! If you want to get index we use enumerate(a_list)
    for search_term in a_list: # <--- search_term passed to function is lost and gets overwritten by elements in a_list.
        i += 1 # <--- Not Pythonic in this context
        if a_list[i] == search_term: #<--- a_list[index+1] == a_list[index]. True if consecutive elements are same else False!
            return 'string found!' #<--- No WRONG!, You didn't find the string, Consecutive elements are same!
        elif a_list[i] != search_term:
            return 'string not found2' #<-- Consecutive elements are not same!
    if len(a_list) == 0:
        return 'string not found'

---

According to the goals you have defined you can implement it like so:

def search_for_string(alist, search_term):
    if not alist:
        return "List is empty"
    if search_term in alist:
        return "First occurence of string Found at index position: " + str(alist.index(search_term))
    else:
        return "String not found"


print(search_for_string(['a', 'b', 'c'], 'd'))
print(search_for_string(['a', 'b', 'c'], 'b'))
print(search_for_string([], 'b'))

Output:

String not found
First occurence of string Found at index position: 1
List is empty