Check if an item is in a nested list

Question

in a simple list following check is trivial:

x = [1, 2, 3]

2 in x  -> True

but if it is a list of list, such as:

x = [[         


        

Answer 1

Here's a recursive version that works for any level of nesting.

def in_nested_list(my_list, item):
    """
    Determines if an item is in my_list, even if nested in a lower-level list.
    """
    if item in my_list:
        return True
    else:
        return any(in_nested_list(sublist, item) for sublist in my_list if isinstance(sublist, list))

Here are a few tests:

x = [1, 3, [1, 2, 3], [2, 3, 4], [3, 4, [], [2, 3, 'a']]]
print in_nested_list(x, 2)
print in_nested_list(x, 5)
print in_nested_list(x, 'a')
print in_nested_list(x, 'b')
print in_nested_list(x, [])
print in_nested_list(x, [1, 2])
print in_nested_list(x, [1, 2, 3])

True
False
True
False
True
False
True