Question

The following script is returning false, when I think that it should be returning true. Any idea what is going on here? Thanks so much, guys!

test=['Pop']
test1='Pop'

if (test==('POP' or 'Pop' or 'pop' or ['POP'] or ['Pop'] or ['pop'])):    
    print "yes"
else:
    print "no"

Currently, the output is, ‘no’.

Answer 1

You aren’t understanding how python processes the statement. Python isn’t natural language.

if (test==(['Pop'] or 'Pop')):

Because the or is inside the parens, it processes it first. So it looks at

['Pop'] or 'Pop'

Since [‘Pop’] is considered True, python reduces the whole statement to:

if (test==['Pop']):

At this point, it tests whether test is equal to ['Pop']

What you are actually wanting to do is:

(test == ['Pop']) or (test == 'Pop')

This is completely different than

 test == (['Pop'] or 'Pop')