Question Christine Nyamu · Mar 22, 2024

Comparing Two Lists/ Variables

Is there a way to compare the content of two variables/ lists and if they share a common element/ value return 1?

Example the two below both have "Yellow":

Set y = "Red, Green, Orange, Yellow"

Set x = "Purple, Black, Yellow, Pink"

The lists I am working with have over 30 elements/values that vary so it is difficult to hard code it to say look for "Yellow". 

Product version: IRIS 2022.1

Comments

David Hockenbroch · Mar 22, 2024

If you want to treat them as lists, you probably want to use $LISTFROMSTRING along with $LISTGET, $LISTFIND, and $LISTLENGTH. All of which can be abbreviated to their initials, by the way - $LFS, $LG, $LF, $LL.

set y = $LFS("Red,Green,Orange,Yellow")
set x = $LFS("Purple,Black,Yellow,Pink")
for i=1:1:$LL(x){
    if $LF(y,$LG(x,i)) > 0 { 
        write $LG(x,i)_" found in both lists!",!
        //Or whatever else you want to do when you find a match here . . .
    }
}
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Robert Cemper · Mar 22, 2024

eventually better to check for longer lists

USER>sx=$lfs("Purple,Black,Yellow,Pink")
USER>s y=$lfs("Red,Green,Orange,Yellow")
USER>f z="y","x" f i=1:1:$ll(@z) i $i(dif($li(@z,i)))
 
USER>zw dif
dif("Black")=1
dif("Green")=1
dif("Orange")=1
dif("Pink")=1
dif("Purple")=1
dif("Red")=1
dif("Yellow")=2

looping with $o() over dif() allows programmatic check

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Chris Stewart  Mar 26, 2024 to Robert Cemper

This one will incorrectly flag an entry being in both lists if it appears twice in 1 list.    That may not be possible due to constrants elsewhere, but it's something to be careful about

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Herman Slagman · Mar 22, 2024
Set x="Purple,Black,Yellow,Pink,Yellow,White,White,a,b,c,d,e,f"Set y="Red,Green,Orange,Yellow,z,y,x,w,v"Set Found=0For i=1:1:$Length(x,",") {  For i2=1:1:$Length(y,",") {    If $Piece(x,",",i)=$Piece(y,",",i2) {      Write $Piece(x,",",i)," = ",$Piece(y,",",i2),!      Set Found=i_","_i2      Return Found     }  }}
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Christine Nyamu  Mar 25, 2024 to Herman Slagman

@Herman Slagman this worked. However, when I had more than one repeating values e.g. 

Set x="Purple,Black,Yellow,Pink,Orange,White,a,b,c,d,e,f"
Set y="Red,Green,Orange,Yellow,z,y,x,w,v"

It only returned that Yellow was found in both lists and ignored the Orange. I probably just need to edit the code that you shared. Thank you!

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Julius Kavay  Mar 25, 2024 to Christine Nyamu

You can edit (or enhance) the above code to give you all matching elements. Below I share a code with you where you can choose the result data type (%List or %String) and the result scope (all the matching elements or just the first match).

/// Find common items of two lists or in two delimited strings/// (as used in a $piece-function)/// /// itm1: first list (as %List or comma-delimited %String)/// itm2: other list (as %List or comma-delimited %String)/// ans : 0 = return a comma-delimited %String with the first match found///       1 = return a comma-delimited %String with all matches found///       2 = return a %List with the first match found///       3 = return a %List with all matches found///       /// return value: according to <ans> argument///       /// Hint: the "$d(var)," part is only needed if the <itm1> argument is///       of %List type and can contain an "undefined" element like the///       second element in $lb(11,,33).///       ClassMethod FindCommonItems(itm1, itm2, ans = 0)
{
    set ptr=0, res="", all=ans#2set:'$lv(itm1) itm1=$lfs(itm1) set:'$lv(itm2) itm2=$lfs(itm2)
    
    while$listnext(itm1,ptr,val) { if$d(val),$lf(itm2,val) { set res=res_$lb(val) quit:'all } }
    quit$s(ans<2:$lts(res), 1:res)
}
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Herman Slagman  Mar 26, 2024 to Christine Nyamu

You are right, but this was based on your original question: "if they share a common element/ value return 1"

But the code is easily enhanced to return all common values.

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Chris Stewart · Mar 26, 2024

I haven't put a massive amount of thought into this so it might be garbage for time/space complexity....

Set y = "Red, Green, Orange, Yellow"Setx = "Purple, Black, Yellow, Pink"setx=$ZSTRIP(x,"*W")
set y=$ZSTRIP(y,"*W")
k ^||members
for i=1:1:$L(x,","){
    set ^||Members($P(x,",",i),1)=""
}

forj=1:1:$L(y,","){
    set ^||Members($P(y,",",j),2)=""
}

//Now do a quick traverse of our membersset key=""set both=""for   {
    set key=$O(^||Members(key))
    quit:key=""set key2=""set key2=$O(^||Members(key,key2))
    if ($O(^||Members(key,key2))'=""set both=both_key_","
}

w !,"These records are in both lists "_both
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