title: Test if lists share any items in python
body: <p>I want to check if <em>any</em> of the items in one list are present in another list.  I can do it simply with the code below, but I suspect there might be a library function to do this.  If not, is there a more pythonic method of achieving the same result.  </p>
  
  <pre><code>In [78]: a = [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]
  
  In [79]: b = [8, 7, 6]
  
  In [80]: c = [8, 7, 6, 5]
  
  In [81]: def lists_overlap(a, b):
     ....:     for i in a:
     ....:         if i in b:
     ....:             return True
     ....:     return False
     ....: 
  
  In [82]: lists_overlap(a, b)
  Out[82]: False
  
  In [83]: lists_overlap(a, c)
  Out[83]: True
  
  In [84]: def lists_overlap2(a, b):
     ....:     return len(set(a).intersection(set(b))) &gt; 0
     ....: 
  </code></pre>