[triangle-zpug] how to match strings in python

[Sam Brauer]

Sometimes I love little exercises like this.  Here's a function that does what you want just using basic Python.

def getMatchingSubstring(s1, s2):
    if len(s1) < len(s2):
        shorter = s1
        other = s2
    else:
        shorter = s2
        other = s1
    if other.startswith(shorter): return shorter
    i = 0
    while(i < len(shorter)):
        if shorter[i] != other[i]: break
        i += 1
    return shorter[:i]


--- On Thu, 4/2/09, Joseph Mack NA3T <jmack at wm7d.net> wrote:

> From: Joseph Mack NA3T <jmack at wm7d.net>
> Subject: [triangle-zpug] how to match strings in python
> To: "zpug" <triangle-zpug at starship.python.net>
> Date: Thursday, April 2, 2009, 9:15 AM
> I've looked in the string
> methods/functions in the python docs and I can't see how to
> do what I want, which is to find the parts of strings that
> match. eg
> 
> 
> string_1 = "foobar"
> string_2 = "foobaz"
> 
> matched_string = "fooba"
> 
> I need to walk along the string(s) 1 char at a time,
> accepting matching letters, till I get a mismatch, when the
> code exits. I was expecting to be able to retrieve chars one
> at a time from each of the two strings and test if the chars
> were the same.
> 
> How do I do this in python?
> 
> Thanks Joe
> 
> -- Joseph Mack NA3T EME(B,D), FM05lw North Carolina
> jmack (at) wm7d (dot) net - azimuthal equidistant map
> generator at http://www.wm7d.net/azproj.shtml
> Homepage http://www.austintek.com/ It's GNU/Linux!
> 
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