refs #5423 this is it

Code/Mantid/Framework/Kernel/inc/MantidKernel/Strings.h

@@ -151,6 +151,9 @@ MANTID_KERNEL_DLL size_t split_path(const std::string &path, std::vector<std::st
 /// Loads the entire contents of a text file into a string
 MANTID_KERNEL_DLL std::string loadFile(const std::string & filename);
 
+/// checks if the candidate is the member of the group
+MANTID_KERNEL_DLL int isMember(const std::vector<std::string> &group, const std::string &candidate);
+
 }   // NAMESPACE Strings
 
 }   // NAMESPACE Kernel

Code/Mantid/Framework/Kernel/src/Strings.cpp

@@ -962,6 +962,25 @@ size_t split_path(const std::string &path, std::vector<std::string> &path_compon
     path_components.resize(n_folders);
     return n_folders;
 }
+/** function checks  if the candidate is the member of the group 
+  * @param group     -- vector of string to check
+  * @param candidate -- the string which has to be checked against the group
+
+  * @returns         -- number of the candidate in the input vector of strings if the candidate belongs to the group 
+                        or -1 if it does not. 
+                        Returns the number of the first maching entry in the group if there are duplicated entries in the group
+*/
+int isMember(const std::vector<std::string> &group, const std::string &candidate)
+{
+    int num(-1);
+    for(size_t i=0;i<group.size();i++){
+        if(candidate.compare(group[i])==0){
+            num = int(i);
+            return num;
+        }
+    }
+    return num;
+}
 
 /// \cond TEMPLATE
 

Code/Mantid/Framework/Kernel/test/StringsTest.h

@@ -216,6 +216,21 @@ public:
   }
 
 
+  void test_isMember()
+  {
+      std::vector<std::string> group(5,"");
+      group[0]="A";
+      group[1]="A1";
+      group[2]="B0";
+      group[3]="C";
+
+      TS_ASSERT_EQUALS(1,isMember(group,"A1"));
+      TS_ASSERT_EQUALS(-1,isMember(group," "));
+      TS_ASSERT_EQUALS(-1,isMember(group,"nothing"));
+      TS_ASSERT_EQUALS(0,isMember(group,"A"));
+      TS_ASSERT_EQUALS(3,isMember(group,"C"));
+  }
+
 
 };