How to check if a message matches items in a list for a Discord bot?

Other Questions Discord bot
1

Hey everyone! I’m working on a Discord bot using Python. I’m stuck on a part where I want to compare a user’s message to a list of events.

Here’s what I’m trying to do:

  1. User types a command like ?event_add [event name]
  2. Bot checks if the event is already in the list
  3. If it’s there, bot says it’s a duplicate
  4. If not, bot adds it (but I haven’t coded this part yet)

My problem is the comparison isn’t working right. It always says the event doesn’t match, even when it should. Here’s a simplified version of my code:

events = {'party time'}

@bot.command()
async def add_event(ctx, event):
    if event in events:
        await ctx.send('That event already exists!')
    else:
        await ctx.send('Something went wrong...')

Any ideas what I’m doing wrong? I’m using Python 3.6 and the latest discord.py library. Thanks for your help!

2

I’ve encountered a similar issue when building my Discord bot. The problem likely lies in how you’re handling the event input. Here’s what worked for me:

Use the ‘*’ parameter to capture multi-word events, strip whitespace and convert the input to lowercase for consistency, and use a set for faster lookups.

Here’s a snippet that should solve your problem:

events = set()

@bot.command()
async def add_event(ctx, *, event):
    event = event.strip().lower()
    if event in events:
        await ctx.send('Event already exists!')
    else:
        events.add(event)
        await ctx.send(f'Added event: {event}')

This approach ensures that ‘Party Time’, ‘party time’, and ’ party time ’ are all treated as the same event. Hope this helps!

3

hey man, i think i kno whats goin on. ur probably not handlin the input right. try this:

@bot.command()
async def add_event(ctx, *, event):
event = event.lower().strip()
if event in events:
await ctx.send(‘already got that one!’)
else:
events.add(event)
await ctx.send(f’added {event}')

this should fix ur issue. it makes everything lowercase and gets rid of extra spaces. good luck!

4

I’ve run into this issue before. The problem is likely with how you’re handling the input. Try modifying your code like this:

@bot.command()
async def add_event(ctx, *, event):
event = event.strip().lower()
if event in events:
await ctx.send(‘Event already exists!’)
else:
events.add(event)
await ctx.send(f’Added event: {event}')

This will normalize the input by removing extra spaces and converting to lowercase. It also allows for multi-word events. Make sure to initialize ‘events’ as a set for efficient lookups. This approach should solve your comparison problem and make your bot more robust.