There are several other ways, besides using the in
operator (easiest):
index()
>>> try:
... "xxxxABCDyyyy".index("test")
... except ValueError:
... print "not found"
... else:
... print "found"
...
not found
find()
>>> if "xxxxABCDyyyy".find("ABCD") != -1:
... print "found"
...
found
re
>>> import re
>>> if re.search("ABCD" , "xxxxABCDyyyy"):
... print "found"
...
found