Pattern matching using python

Question

In the code below how match the pattern after "answer" and "nonanswer" in the dictionary

opt_dict=(
    {'answer1':1,
     'answer14':1,
     'answer13':12,
     'answer11':6,
     'answer5':5,
     'nonanswer12':1,
     'nonanswer11':1,
     'nonanswer4':1,
     'nonanswer5':1,})

And

if opt_dict:
    for ii in opt_dict:
        logging.debug(ii)
        logging.debug(opt_dict[ii])
        if ii in "nonanswer":
            logging.debug(opt_dict[ii])
        elif ii in "answer":
            logging.debug("answer founddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddd")
            logging.debug(opt_dict[ii])
        else:
            logging.debug("empty dict")        

Answer 1

I didn't keep all your logging, but this should work:

if opt_dict:
    for key, value in opt_dict.items():
        if "nonanswer" in key:
            print "nonanswer", value
        elif "answer" in key:
            print "answer", value
        else:
            raise Exception( "invalid key" )
else:
    print "empty dict"

Answer 2

I'm pretty sure you have your in tests reversed. The data has the form answer1, which will never be in the literal answer. Try "answer" in ii instead.

To be more specific, you can use the startswith method, since all your data (at least in this example) actually starts with answer or nonanswer, and you might not want to match something of the form 34argleanswer.