Python program to Extract Mesh matching Strings

Given a character mesh, containing missing characters, match the string which matches the mesh.

Example:

Input : test_list = [“geeks”, “best”, “peeks”], mesh = “_ee_s” 
Output : [‘geeks’, ‘peeks’] 
Explanation : Elements according to mesh are geeks and peeks.

Input : test_list = [“geeks”, “best”, “test”], mesh = “_e_t” 
Output : [‘best’, ‘test’] 
Explanation : Elements according to mesh are best and test. 

Method #1 : Using loop + all() + len() + zip() 

The combination of the above can be used to solve this problem. In this, we perform the task of matching mesh and each string using zip() and all() is used to check for all strings, len() is used to test for correct string length matching mesh.

Python3

# Python3 code to demonstrate working of
# Extract Mesh matching Strings
# Using len() + loop + zip() + all()

# initializing list
test_list = ["geeks", "best", "peeks", "for", "seeks"]

# printing original list
print("The original list : " + str(test_list))

# initializing mesh
mesh = "_ee_s"

res = []
for sub in test_list:

    # testing for matching mesh, checking each character and length
    if (len(sub) == len(mesh)) and all((ele1 == "_") or (ele1 == ele2)
       for ele1, ele2 in zip(mesh, sub)):
        res.append(sub)

# printing result
print("The extracted strings : " + str(res))

Output

The original list : ['geeks', 'best', 'peeks', 'for', 'seeks']
The extracted strings : ['geeks', 'peeks', 'seeks']

Method #2 : Using list comprehension

This solves the problem in a similar way as the above method, the only difference here is that 1 liner solution is provided. 

Python3

# Python3 code to demonstrate working of
# Extract Mesh matching Strings
# Using list comprehension

# initializing list
test_list = ["geeks", "best", "peeks", "for", "seeks"]

# printing original list
print("The original list : " + str(test_list))

# initializing mesh
mesh = "_ee_s"

# one liner to solve this problem
res = [sub for sub in test_list if (len(sub) == len(mesh)) and all((ele1 == "_") or (ele1 == ele2)
      for ele1, ele2 in zip(mesh, sub))]

# printing result
print("The extracted strings : " + str(res))

Output

The original list : ['geeks', 'best', 'peeks', 'for', 'seeks']
The extracted strings : ['geeks', 'peeks', 'seeks']