Compare 2 lists and output the similar matches

I have 2 Python lists :

prefixList = ["12","9"]

files = ["12-a.csv","12-b.csv","9-t.txt","8-a.txt"]

and want to create a new list with a list of files that start with the prefix list, so the output will be:

fileOutput = ["12-a.csv","12-b.csv","9-t.txt"]

>Solution :

You can use regex and find number and search number in prefixList.

prefixList = ["12","9"]

files = ["12-a.csv","12-b.csv","9-t.txt","8-a.txt"]

new_files = [file 
             for file in files 
             if(re.search(r'\d+', file).group(0) in prefixList)]

print(new_files)

Output:

['12-a.csv', '12-b.csv', '9-t.txt']