Tutorials  /  Python

Check if a String Contains Another String: Python Tips

Ccentron Redaktion · February 2024 ·3 min read ·Python, Tutorial

String manipulation is a common task in any programming language. Python provides two common ways to check if a string contains another string.

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Python Check if String Contains Another String

Python string supports the in operator. So we can use it to check if a string is part of another string or not. The in operator syntax is:

Code
sub in str

It returns True if “sub” string is part of “str”, otherwise it returns False. Let’s look at some examples of using the in operator in Python.

Python
str1 = 'I love Python Programming'

str2 = 'Python'

str3 = 'Java'

print(f'"{str1}" contains "{str2}" = {str2 in str1}')
print(f'"{str1}" contains "{str2.lower()}" = {str2.lower() in str1}')
print(f'"{str1}" contains "{str3}" = {str3 in str1}')

if str2 in str1:
    print(f'"{str1}" contains "{str2}"')
else:
    print(f'"{str1}" does not contain "{str2}"')

Output:

Code
"I love Python Programming" contains "Python" = True
"I love Python Programming" contains "python" = False
"I love Python Programming" contains "Java" = False
"I love Python Programming" contains "Python"

If you are not familiar with f-prefixed strings in Python, it’s a new way for string formatting introduced in Python 3.6. You can read more about it at f-strings in Python.

When we use the in operator, internally it calls __contains__() function. We can use this function directly too, however, it’s recommended to use the in operator for readability purposes.

Python
s = 'abc'

print('s contains a =', s.__contains__('a'))
print('s contains A =', s.__contains__('A'))
print('s contains X =', s.__contains__('X'))

Output:

Code
s contains a = True
s contains A = False
s contains X = False

Using find() to Check if a String Contains Another Substring

We can also use the string find() function to check if a string contains a substring or not. This function returns the first index position where the substring is found, else returns -1.

Python
str1 = 'I love Python Programming'

str2 = 'Python'

str3 = 'Java'

index = str1.find(str2)
if index != -1:
    print(f'"{str1}" contains "{str2}"')
else:
    print(f'"{str1}" does not contain "{str2}"')

index = str1.find(str3)
if index != -1:
    print(f'"{str1}" contains "{str3}"')
else:
    print(f'"{str1}" does not contain "{str3}"')

Output:

Code
"I love Python Programming" contains "Python"
"I love Python Programming" does not contain "Java"
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Kategorie Python
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