How can I verify if one list is a subset of another?
PythonListPython Problem Overview
I need to verify if a list is a subset of another - a boolean return is all I seek.
Is testing equality on the smaller list after an intersection the fastest way to do this? Performance is of utmost importance given the number of datasets that need to be compared.
Adding further facts based on discussions:
-
Will either of the lists be the same for many tests? It does as one of them is a static lookup table.
-
Does it need to be a list? It does not - the static lookup table can be anything that performs best. The dynamic one is a dict from which we extract the keys to perform a static lookup on.
What would be the optimal solution given the scenario?
Python Solutions
Solution 1 - Python
>>> a = [1, 3, 5]
>>> b = [1, 3, 5, 8]
>>> c = [3, 5, 9]
>>> set(a) <= set(b)
True
>>> set(c) <= set(b)
False
>>> a = ['yes', 'no', 'hmm']
>>> b = ['yes', 'no', 'hmm', 'well']
>>> c = ['sorry', 'no', 'hmm']
>>>
>>> set(a) <= set(b)
True
>>> set(c) <= set(b)
False
Solution 2 - Python
Use set.issubset
Example:
a = {1,2}
b = {1,2,3}
a.issubset(b) # True
a = {1,2,4}
b = {1,2,3}
a.issubset(b) # False
The performant function Python provides for this is set.issubset
. It does have a few restrictions that make it unclear if it's the answer to your question, however.
A list may contain items multiple times and has a specific order. A set does not. Additionally, sets only work on hashable objects.
Are you asking about subset or subsequence (which means you'll want a string search algorithm)? Will either of the lists be the same for many tests? What are the datatypes contained in the list? And for that matter, does it need to be a list?
Your other post intersect a dict and list made the types clearer and did get a recommendation to use dictionary key views for their set-like functionality. In that case it was known to work because dictionary keys behave like a set (so much so that before we had sets in Python we used dictionaries). One wonders how the issue got less specific in three hours.
Solution 3 - Python
one = [1, 2, 3]
two = [9, 8, 5, 3, 2, 1]
all(x in two for x in one)
Explanation: Generator creating booleans by looping through list one
checking if that item is in list two
. all()
returns True
if every item is truthy, else False
.
There is also an advantage that all
return False on the first instance of a missing element rather than having to process every item.
Solution 4 - Python
Assuming the items are hashable
>>> from collections import Counter
>>> not Counter([1, 2]) - Counter([1])
False
>>> not Counter([1, 2]) - Counter([1, 2])
True
>>> not Counter([1, 2, 2]) - Counter([1, 2])
False
If you don't care about duplicate items eg. [1, 2, 2]
and [1, 2]
then just use:
>>> set([1, 2, 2]).issubset([1, 2])
True
> Is testing equality on the smaller list after an intersection the fastest way to do this?
.issubset
will be the fastest way to do it. Checking the length before testing issubset
will not improve speed because you still have O(N + M) items to iterate through and check.
Solution 5 - Python
One more solution would be to use a intersection
.
one = [1, 2, 3]
two = [9, 8, 5, 3, 2, 1]
set(one).intersection(set(two)) == set(one)
The intersection of the sets would contain of set one
(OR)
one = [1, 2, 3]
two = [9, 8, 5, 3, 2, 1]
set(one) & (set(two)) == set(one)
Solution 6 - Python
Set theory is inappropriate for lists since duplicates will result in wrong answers using set theory.
For example:
a = [1, 3, 3, 3, 5]
b = [1, 3, 3, 4, 5]
set(b) > set(a)
has no meaning. Yes, it gives a false answer but this is not correct since set theory is just comparing: 1,3,5 versus 1,3,4,5. You must include all duplicates.
Instead you must count each occurrence of each item and do a greater than equal to check. This is not very expensive, because it is not using O(N^2) operations and does not require quick sort.
#!/usr/bin/env python
from collections import Counter
def containedInFirst(a, b):
a_count = Counter(a)
b_count = Counter(b)
for key in b_count:
if a_count.has_key(key) == False:
return False
if b_count[key] > a_count[key]:
return False
return True
a = [1, 3, 3, 3, 5]
b = [1, 3, 3, 4, 5]
print "b in a: ", containedInFirst(a, b)
a = [1, 3, 3, 3, 4, 4, 5]
b = [1, 3, 3, 4, 5]
print "b in a: ", containedInFirst(a, b)
Then running this you get:
$ python contained.py
b in a: False
b in a: True
Solution 7 - Python
one = [1, 2, 3]
two = [9, 8, 5, 3, 2, 1]
set(x in two for x in one) == set([True])
If list1 is in list 2:
-
(x in two for x in one)
generates a list ofTrue
. -
when we do a
set(x in two for x in one)
has only one element (True).
Solution 8 - Python
Pardon me if I am late to the party. ;)
To check if one set A
is subset of set B
, Python
has A.issubset(B)
and A <= B
. It works on set
only and works great BUT the complexity of internal implementation is unknown. Reference: https://docs.python.org/2/library/sets.html#set-objects
I came up with an algorithm to check if list A
is a subset of list B
with following remarks.
-
To reduce complexity of finding subset, I find it appropriate to
sort
both lists first before comparing elements to qualify for subset. -
It helped me to
break
theloop
when value of element of second listB[j]
is greater than value of element of first listA[i]
. -
last_index_j
is used to startloop
overlist B
where it last left off. It helps avoid starting comparisons from the start oflist B
(which is, as you might guess unnecessary, to startlist B
fromindex 0
in subsequentiterations
.) -
Complexity will be
O(n ln n)
each for sorting both lists andO(n)
for checking for subset.
O(n ln n) + O(n ln n) + O(n) = O(n ln n)
. -
Code has lots of
print
statements to see what's going on at eachiteration
of theloop
. These are meant for understanding only.
Check if one list is subset of another list
is_subset = True;
A = [9, 3, 11, 1, 7, 2];
B = [11, 4, 6, 2, 15, 1, 9, 8, 5, 3];
print(A, B);
# skip checking if list A has elements more than list B
if len(A) > len(B):
is_subset = False;
else:
# complexity of sorting using quicksort or merge sort: O(n ln n)
# use best sorting algorithm available to minimize complexity
A.sort();
B.sort();
print(A, B);
# complexity: O(n^2)
# for a in A:
# if a not in B:
# is_subset = False;
# break;
# complexity: O(n)
is_found = False;
last_index_j = 0;
for i in range(len(A)):
for j in range(last_index_j, len(B)):
is_found = False;
print("i=" + str(i) + ", j=" + str(j) + ", " + str(A[i]) + "==" + str(B[j]) + "?");
if B[j] <= A[i]:
if A[i] == B[j]:
is_found = True;
last_index_j = j;
else:
is_found = False;
break;
if is_found:
print("Found: " + str(A[i]));
last_index_j = last_index_j + 1;
break;
else:
print("Not found: " + str(A[i]));
if is_found == False:
is_subset = False;
break;
print("subset") if is_subset else print("not subset");
Output
[9, 3, 11, 1, 7, 2] [11, 4, 6, 2, 15, 1, 9, 8, 5, 3]
[1, 2, 3, 7, 9, 11] [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 8, 9, 11, 15]
i=0, j=0, 1==1?
Found: 1
i=1, j=1, 2==1?
Not found: 2
i=1, j=2, 2==2?
Found: 2
i=2, j=3, 3==3?
Found: 3
i=3, j=4, 7==4?
Not found: 7
i=3, j=5, 7==5?
Not found: 7
i=3, j=6, 7==6?
Not found: 7
i=3, j=7, 7==8?
not subset
Solution 9 - Python
Below code checks whether a given set is a "proper subset" of another set
def is_proper_subset(set, superset):
return all(x in superset for x in set) and len(set)<len(superset)
Solution 10 - Python
In python 3.5 you can do a [*set()][index]
to get the element. It is much slower solution than other methods.
one = [1, 2, 3]
two = [9, 8, 5, 3, 2, 1]
result = set(x in two for x in one)
[*result][0] == True
or just with len and set
len(set(a+b)) == len(set(a))
Solution 11 - Python
Here is how I know if one list is a subset of another one, the sequence matters to me in my case.
def is_subset(list_long,list_short):
short_length = len(list_short)
subset_list = []
for i in range(len(list_long)-short_length+1):
subset_list.append(list_long[i:i+short_length])
if list_short in subset_list:
return True
else: return False
Solution 12 - Python
Since no one has considered comparing two strings, here's my proposal.
You may of course want to check if the pipe ("|") is not part of either lists and maybe chose automatically another char, but you got the idea.
Using an empty string as separator is not a solution since the numbers can have several digits ([12,3] != [1,23])
def issublist(l1,l2):
return '|'.join([str(i) for i in l1]) in '|'.join([str(i) for i in l2])
Solution 13 - Python
If you are asking if one list is "contained" in another list then:
>>>if listA in listB: return True
If you are asking if each element in listA has an equal number of matching elements in listB try:
all(True if listA.count(item) <= listB.count(item) else False for item in listA)
Solution 14 - Python
Most of the solutions consider that the lists do not have duplicates. In case your lists do have duplicates you can try this:
def isSubList(subList,mlist):
uniqueElements=set(subList)
for e in uniqueElements:
if subList.count(e) > mlist.count(e):
return False
# It is sublist
return True
It ensures the sublist never has different elements than list or a greater amount of a common element.
lst=[1,2,2,3,4]
sl1=[2,2,3]
sl2=[2,2,2]
sl3=[2,5]
print(isSubList(sl1,lst)) # True
print(isSubList(sl2,lst)) # False
print(isSubList(sl3,lst)) # False