Python: Find in list

Question

I have come across this:

item = someSortOfSelection()
if item in myList:
    doMySpecialFunction(item)

but sometimes it does not work with

Answer 1

Instead of using list.index(x) which returns the index of x if it is found in list or returns a #ValueError message if x is not found, you could use list.count(x) which returns the number of occurrences of x in list (validation that x is indeed in the list) or it returns 0 otherwise (in the absence of x). The cool thing about count() is that it doesn't break your code or require you to throw an exception for when x is not found