Get same characters from 2 lists in right order – Python

I have two lists and I need to print matching characters to string in order of characters in list 2. If there is no match, i need to print "-" instead of that character. Final string should have same length of chars as list 2

Example 1 :

list 1 = ["r", "w", "d"]
list 2 = ["w", "o", "r", "d"]

Expected output = W – R D

Example 2:

list 1 = ["r"]
list 2 = ["w", "o", "r", "d"]

Expected output = – – R –

>Solution :

You can use list comprehension to check if the character in actual word (list2) is present in the list1 or not –

list1 = ["r", "w", "d"]
list2 = ["w", "o", "r", "d"]
print(' '.join([i.upper() if i in list1 else '-' for i in list2]))

Output –

W - R D

You can optionally create a set from list1 for faster lookup in case the word lengths are huge –

given_words = set(list1)
print(' '.join([i.upper() if i in given_words else '-' for i in list2]))