Checking if a Range is Present in Another Range in Python

Learn how to compare two ranges in Python, ensuring that one range is fully contained within another. This simple guide provides clear examples and explanations to help you check authorized ports against a changing range.
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Checking if a Range is Present in Another Range in Python

When working with ranges in Python, you might encounter a situation where you need to check if one range of values is fully contained within another range. This scenario is common in various applications, such as verifying authorized ports against dynamically changing values. In this guide, we will explore how to compare two ranges in Python effectively and efficiently.

The Problem

Imagine you have two sets of numerical ranges:

range1: Represents a set of ports that change at runtime, defined as range(80, 90).

range2: Represents a fixed set of authorized ports, defined as range(0, 360).

Your task is to check if range1 is completely contained within range2. This means every value in range1 must be present in range2 for the check to return true.

The Solution

Python provides a very efficient way to handle this situation through the use of sets. Sets are unordered collections of unique elements and are perfect for performing membership tests. Here’s how you can do it step-by-step:

Step 1: Converting Ranges to Sets

First, you need to convert your ranges into sets. This allows for faster membership checking and makes it simple to determine if one set is a subset of another.

Here’s how you can do this in Python:

[[See Video to Reveal this Text or Code Snippet]]

Step 2: Checking for Subset

Next, you can use the issubset() method to check if set1 is fully contained within set2. This method will return True if all elements of set1 are present in set2, and False otherwise.

Here’s the code to check this:

[[See Video to Reveal this Text or Code Snippet]]

Complete Code Example

Combining the steps above, here’s the complete code snippet:

[[See Video to Reveal this Text or Code Snippet]]

Output

When you run the code, you will expect the output to be True because all values from 80 to 89 are indeed included in the range 0 to 359.

Conclusion

In summary, checking if one range exists within another in Python can be efficiently done using sets and the issubset() method. This method not only simplifies the code but also enhances performance, especially useful in applications where such checks are frequent. Whether you're validating port numbers or any other range-based logic, understanding this concept will save you time and make your code cleaner.

By following these steps, you can easily implement range checks in your Python applications, ensuring that the values you are working with are valid and authorized.