>> seq = [1,2,3,4,5] >> if any(seq, lambda x: x==5): >> ... >> >> which is clearly more readable than >> >> reduce(seq, lambda x,y: x or y==5, False) > > How about this? > > if any(x==5 for x in seq): Aren't all of these equivalent to: if 5 in seq: ... ? Cheers, Brian