Comparing a string to multiple items in Python
If, OTOH, your list of strings is indeed hideously long, use a set:
accepted_strings = {'auth', 'authpriv', 'daemon'}if facility in accepted_strings: do_stuff()Testing for containment in a set is O(1) on average.
Unless your list of strings gets hideously long, something like this is probably best:
accepted_strings = ['auth', 'authpriv', 'daemon'] # etc etc if facility in accepted_strings: do_stuff()
To efficiently check if a string matches one of many, use this:
allowed = set(('a', 'b', 'c'))if foo in allowed: bar()set()s are hashed, unordered collections of items optimized for determining whether a given item is in them.