any() function in Python with a callback

Question

The Python standard library defines an any() function that

Return True if any element of the iterable is true. If the iterable is empty, return False.

Answer 1

While the others gave good Pythonic answers (I'd just use the accepted answer in most cases), I just wanted to point out how easy it is to make your own utility function to do this yourself if you really prefer it:

def any_lambda(iterable, function):
  return any(function(i) for i in iterable)

In [1]: any_lambda([1, 2, 'joe'], lambda e: isinstance(e, int) and e > 0
Out[1]: True
In [2]: any_lambda([-1, '2', 'joe'], lambda e: isinstance(e, int) and e > 0)
Out[2]: False

I think I'd at least define it with the function parameter first though, since that'd more closely match existing built-in functions like map() and filter():

def any_lambda(function, iterable):
  return any(function(i) for i in iterable)