On 9/6/07, Sreeraj <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > hi, > > I am a beginner in Python. I wish to know how can i filter a list of > strings using wild characters.ie > Lets say i have list countries = > ["india","africa","atlanta","artica","nigeria"]. I need only the list > of string starting with 'a'.
There are a few ways of doing so. For some simple operations there are functions on the strings, If you want some more complex "filtering" then have a look at Python's regular expression module "re". example: >>> l = ["india","africa","atlanta","artica","nigeria"] >>> al = [c for c in l if c.startswith('a')] # this is a list comprehension >>> al ['africa', 'atlanta', 'artica'] To know more about list comprehensions, have a look at: http://docs.python.org/tut/node7.html#SECTION007140000000000000000 Methods on strings: http://docs.python.org/lib/string-methods.html#string-methods Btw, not all of names in your list are countries ! Cheers, -- ---- Amit Khemka website: www.onyomo.com wap-site: www.owap.in -- http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list