That made me feel like you're not sure what your goal is. Sorry if I was rude, didn't mean to be.
One deals with words in strings, the other deals with characters.
Also, I find that using all() and any() makes it clear what is expected.
Actually your way was totally valid. I just find the logic kind of backwards - I'd tend to check if my string is in the list of strings to exclude, instead of checking if the strings to exclude match my string.
edit:
Here's a version that will handle characters, words, numbers, pretty much anything you throw at it, as long as values are in lists:
def is_this_list_valid(values, required_values=None, forbidden_values=None):
req_check = True
if required_values is not None:
req_check = all(v in values for v in required_values)
excl_check = True
if forbidden_values is not None:
excl_check = not any(v in forbidden_values for v in values)
return req_check and excl_check
req = [42, 'foo', {'baz': "BAZ"}]
excl = ["bar", 21, 'a']
tests = [
['bla', 42, 'b', 'foo', {'baz': "BAZ"}],
['42', 'foo', 'baz'],
[42, 'foo', 21]
]
for t in tests:
print(is_this_list_valid(t, req, excl))
# > True
# > False
# > False
Might be simpler to just pass empty lists on call instead of using None as default, but... blah.