# Find if one list is a subsequence of another

So the problem of verifying if a list is a subsequence of another came up in a discussion, and I wrote code that seems to work (I haven't rigorously tested it).

IsSubequence.py

def is_subsequence(lst1, lst2):
"""
*   Finds if a list is a subsequence of another.

*   Params:
*   lst1 (list): The candidate subsequence.
*   lst2 (list): The parent list.
*   Return:
*   (bool): A boolean variable indicating whether lst1 is a subsequence of lst2.
"""
l1, l2 = len(lst1), len(lst2)
if l1 > l2:  #l1 must be <= l2 for lst1 to be a subsequence of lst2.
return False
i = j = 0
d1, d2 = l1, l2
while i < l1 and j < l2:
while lst1[i] != lst2[j]:
j += 1
d2 -= 1
if d1 > d2:  #At this point, lst1 cannot a subsequence of lst2.
return False
i, j, d1, d2 = i+1, j+1, d1-1, d2-1
if d1 > d2:
return False
return True


• Specify what do you mean by "subsequence". Is [1,1] a subsequence of [1,0,1]? According to your code, it is. If you only want to consider continuous subsequences (eg. [1,1] is not a subsequence of [1,0,1]), you can use a string matching algorithm. The items of the two lists can be viewed as characters of two strings. – kyrill Mar 14 at 0:01
• [1, 1] is supposed to be a subsequence of [1, 0, 1]. – Tobi Alafin Mar 15 at 13:56
• In that case, the complexity of your code is optimal. Some optimizations are admissible in specific cases, such as when repeatedly checking the same haystack. Then you might do some preprocessing and save the result, to be able to quickly check whether the needle can possibly be a subsequence or not. For example, make a set of elements of the haystack, and when the needle contains an element which is not in the set, it cannot be a subsequence of the haystack. This would be especially helpful if the haystack is long but contains few unique elements (many repeated elements). – kyrill Mar 15 at 16:42
• Aah, thanks for the suggestion. – Tobi Alafin Mar 16 at 7:26

# Review

• Testing

(I haven't rigorously tested it).

Well you should write some test to ensure validity of the function. So even after changes you can be sure it will still work. doctest is a pretty nice module to use, and is a nice extension of your docstring

• Naming

Variables should have descriptive names!

lst1, lst2 if it wasn't for that docstring I would not have known what is the subseq and the parent, so instead I propose to rename them to needle and haystack here the intent is more clear

Same goes for d1, d2... I can see that they are the remaining length of the list, but it is hard to tell from the variable name.

• for is considered more Pythonic vs while

For loops are Pythons greatest feature IMHO, they are easy to read and short to write

You should start writing for loops instead of a while, "Loop like a native" might be an interesting talk to view

• Too many assignments in a line

Might be preference, but I find this line hard to read:

i, j, d1, d2 = i+1, j+1, d1-1, d2-1

There are too many values with not enough descriptive names on this line

# Alternative

We can instead loop over the haystack and use slicing to compare the sliced haystack with the needle, lastly top it off with the any keyword and write some tests with the doctest module

import doctest

def is_subsequence(needle, haystack):
"""
Finds if a list is a subsequence of another.

* args
needle: the candidate subsequence
haystack: the parent list

* returns
boolean

>>> is_subsequence([1, 2, 3, 4], [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6])
True
>>> is_subsequence([1, 2, 3, 4], [1, 2, 3, 5, 6])
False
>>> is_subsequence([6], [1, 2, 3, 5, 6])
True
>>> is_subsequence([5, 6], [1, 2, 3, 5, 6])
True
>>> is_subsequence([[5, 6], 7], [1, 2, 3, [5, 6], 7])
True
>>> is_subsequence([1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8], [1, 2, 3, [5, 6], 7])
False
"""
return any(
haystack[i:i+len(needle)] == needle
for i in range(len(haystack) - len(needle) + 1)
)

if __name__ == '__main__':
doctest.testmod()

• Thanks for the suggestions. I don't think while is compatible with the algorithm I chose. Also, the algorithm you used is wrong; it tests if the needle is a contiguous subsequence of the haystack, and that's not what I'm trying to do (my use case doesn't require the needle to be contiguous. e.g [1, 1] is a subsequence of [1, 0, 1]). – Tobi Alafin Mar 15 at 14:03
• You should have clarified the problem statement in the Question, and if there were any tests, it would have been more obvious ;) – Ludisposed Mar 15 at 15:08