In Python, there is a built-in string method, “startswith,” that lets you determine whether a line starts with a character. I’ve used it before because I tend to want to use the features of the standard library, despite having awesome features like slicing at my disposal. What I didn’t realize immediately, though, was how to compare the string against two or more sets of characters. All I knew is that entering a list as the prefix — instead of the more common single string — didn’t work.
Luckily, my question was answered right away in the string method documentation. I found that to perform these comparisons together, you must supply the “startswith” string method with a tuple. It works the same for the “endswith” method. However, this does require Python 2.5.
>>> starts_with = ('f', 'a')
>>> def does_startwith(selected_text):
... if selected_text.startswith(starts_with):
... print True
...
>>> does_startwith('z is a letter')
>>> does_startwith('f is a letter')
True
>>> does_startwith('b is a letter')
>>> does_startwith('a is a letter')
True
This has some application to a larger question I had, so I wanted to note it.