Python: Determine if an unsorted list is contained in a 'list of lists', regardless of the order to the elements

Question

I have a similar question to this question: Determine if 2 lists have the same elements, regardless of order?

What is the best/quickest way to determine whether an unsor

Answer 1

You can use sets here:

def doSomething(myListOfLists, otherInputs):
    s = set(otherInputs)           #create set from otherInputs
    for item in myListOfLists: 
        #remove the common items between `s` and current sublist from `s`.
        s -= s.intersection(item) 
        #if `s` is empty, means all items found. Return True
        if not s:                  
            return True
    return not bool(s)
... 
>>> doSomething([[1, 2, 7],[6, 5, 4], [10, 9, 10]], [7, 6, 8])
False
>>> doSomething([[1, 2, 7],[6, 5, 4], [10, 8, 10]], [7, 6, 8])
True

Update 1: Any Sublist contains exactly same items as otherInputs.

def doSomething(myListOfLists, otherInputs):
    s = set(otherInputs)
    return any(set(item) == s for item in myListOfLists)
... 
>>> doSomething([[6, 8, 7],[6, 5, 4], [10, 8, 10]], [7, 6, 8])
True
>>> doSomething([[1, 2, 7],[6, 5, 4], [10, 8, 10]], [7, 6, 8])
False

Update 2: otherInputs is a subset of any of the sublist:

def doSomething(myListOfLists, otherInputs):
    s = set(otherInputs)
    return any(s.issubset(item) for item in myListOfLists)
... 
>>> doSomething([[6, 8, 7],[6, 5, 4], [10, 8, 10]], [7, 6, 8])
True
>>> doSomething([[6, 8, 7, 10],[6, 5, 4], [10, 8, 10]], [7, 6, 8])
True
>>> doSomething([[1, 2, 7],[6, 5, 4], [10, 8, 10]], [7, 6, 8])
False