reduction

[Fillmore]

My problem. I have lists of substrings associated to values:

['a','b','c','g'] => 1
['a','b','c','h'] => 1
['a','b','c','i'] => 1
['a','b','c','j'] => 1
['a','b','c','k'] => 1
['a','b','c','l'] => 0  # <- Black sheep!!!
['a','b','c','m'] => 1
['a','b','c','n'] => 1
['a','b','c','o'] => 1
['a','b','c','p'] => 1

I can check a bit of data against elements in this list
and determine whether the value to be associated to the data is 1 or 0.

I would like to make my matching algorithm smarter so I can
reduce the total number of lists:

['a','b','c','l'] => 0  # If "l" is in my data I have a zero
['a','b','c'] => 1      # or a more generic match will do the job

I am trying to think of a way to perform this "reduction", but
I have a feeling I am reinventing the wheel.

Is this a common problem that is already addressed by an existing module?

I realize this is vague. Apologies for that.

thank you