Question

How to detect overlapping prefix–suffix between two lists (end of one list matches start of the other) in Python

Answer 1

def overlap(a, b):
    max_len = min(len(a), len(b))
    for k in range(max_len, 0, -1):
        if a[-k:] == b[:k]:
            return a[-k:]
    return []


a = [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]
b = [4, 5, 6, 7, 8]

print(overlap(a, b))



'''
run:

[4, 5]

'''

 

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Answer 2

def overlap(a, b):
    for k in range(min(len(a), len(b)), 0, -1):
        if all(x == y for x, y in zip(a[-k:], b[:k])):
            return a[-k:]
    return []


a = [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]
b = [4, 5, 6, 7, 8]

print(overlap(a, b))



'''
run:

[4, 5]

'''

 

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