How do i find an exact string within a string using python

Question

Using a simple "if "blank" in string" statement i would like to find an exact word in a csv column.

with open("example.csv","r") as file
reader=csv.reader(file)

string=""

for row in reader:
    if "Hello" in row[0]:
        string+=row[0]

print(string)

If the csv has "Hello World" in row[0] string will equal "Hello World" but I only want string to +=row[0] if specifically only "Hello" is in row[0] without "World".

In conclusion, I'm hoping the code prints nothing unless exactly "Hello" is in row[0].

`if "Hello" in row[0] and "World" not in row[0]` ? or just `if "Hello" == row[0]` ? — azro, Apr 12 '20 at 10:02
Or if row[0] == "Hello", depending on how strict they want to be. — Peritract, Apr 12 '20 at 10:02
i think you should replace `in` with `==` to check for exact equality — Adam.Er8, Apr 12 '20 at 10:03

score 1 · Accepted Answer · answered Apr 12 '20 at 10:04

You can check if one string is exactly the same as another using ==:

if row[0] == "Hello":

That will find you all the rows with an exact value. You should only use in if you are looking for part of a string.

If you want to find "Hello" when it is part of a string except when it is followed by "World", then you could try

if "Hello" in row[0] and not "Hello World" in row[0]:

For anything more complicated, you'd need to look into regular expressions.

How do i find an exact string within a string using python

1 Answers1