CODEWITHSUNDEEP
pythonstringtuples
Longdaysjourneyintocode
Longdaysjourneyintocode

Reputation: 83

Better way to find common words in a tuple?

I completed an exercise in which I found and returned the common words between two strings in alphabetical order as a string, separated by commas. Though I was able to do it correctly, I am wondering if there is a better way. Better can be defined however you define it. 

def return_common(first, second):
    first = first.split(',')
    second = second.split(',')
    newList = ",".join(list(set(first) & set(second)))
    #newList = list(newList)
    newList = newList.split(',')
    newList = sorted(newList)
    newList = ",".join(newList)
    return newList

return_common("one,two,three", "four,five,one,two,six,three")
#above returns 'one,three,two'

Upvotes: 2

Views: 214

Answers (3)

Kei Minagawa
Kei Minagawa

Reputation: 4521

I tried to extend your question. Here is my answer.

def return_common(*data):
    common_words = reduce(lambda a,b:a&b, map(lambda x: set(x.split(",")), data))
    return ",".join(common_words)

example:

>>> return_common("two,three", "four,five,one,two,six,three", "three"):
'three'

Upvotes: 1

Kamehameha
Kamehameha

Reputation: 5473

The code can be shortened(into a line) like this -

def return_common(first, second):
    return ",".join(sorted(set(first.split(","))&set(second.split(","))))

Testing it -

>>> return_common("one,two,three", "four,five,one,two,six,three")
'one,three,two'

Upvotes: 2

RemcoGerlich
RemcoGerlich

Reputation: 31270

The basic method is good but you are doing too much work. Repeated joins and splits, and turning things into lists that don't need to be. And do you need the result to be sorted?

You could do just

def return_common(first, second):
    common_words = set(first.split(",")) & set(second.split(","))
    return ",".join(common_words)

Upvotes: 1

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