However, what I do from time to time is to use a function:

def str_eq(sa: str, sb: str) -> bool:
       return sa == sb or sa in sb if sa is not None and sb is not None and len(sa) > 0 else False

(Python 3)

The function first tries a standard comparison with "==". Only if this fails, a test with "in" is performed. In addition, the two variables passed (sa and sb) are tested for None.

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