Finding if any element in a list is in another list and return the first element found

Question

It is easy to check if an element of a list is in another list using any():

any(elem in list2 for elem in list1)

but is there

Answer 1

Use sets: https://docs.python.org/2/library/sets.html

result = set(list1) & set(list2)

if you want to make it a conditional like any:

if (set(list1) & set(list2)):
    do something