How to optimise function logic to avoid duplication – python

I have some code below, for a given name that matches pattern with 2 lower case letters (such as ‘aa’), the valid name can be V-aa or X-aa

def verify_helper(valid_name):
    do something
    return true #meaning the name starts either V or X is valid


def example(name): 
     
    if re.match("^[a-z]{2}$", name)
        valid_name_1 = f"V-{name}"
        valid_name_2 = f"X-{name}"  
    
    verify_helper(valid_name_1)
    verify_helper(valid_name_2)  

My question is: can I do something like:

def example(name): 
     
    if re.match("^[a-z]{2}$", name)
        valid_name_1 = f"V-{name}"
        valid_name_2 = f"X-{name}"  
    
    if valid_name matches either 'V-' or 'X-'
    call the first function 

Answer

From your description, I assume that verify_helper() is computationally expensive regardless of names being valid.

Now you want to optimize the code, by having verify_helper() only execute for valid names.

If that’s the case, you could have the condition inside verify_helper(), like this.

def verify_helper(name):
    if re.match("^[XV]-[a-z]{2}", name): # checks for valid names like X-aa, X-aa11, V-bb etc.
        # do something only for valid names
        return True
    else:
        return False