master = [1,3,9,8,3,4,5]
addition = [3,4,5,7,8]

def merge(master, addition):
    n = 1
    while n < len(master):
        if master[-n:] == addition[:n]:
            return master + addition[n:]
        n += 1
    return master + addition

def merge(a, b):
    max_offset = len(b)  # can't overlap with greater size than len(b)
    for i in reversed(range(max_offset+1)):
        # checks for equivalence of decreasing sized slices
        if a[-i:] == b[:i]:
            break
    return a + b[i:]

test_data = [{'a': [1,3,9,8,3,4,5], 'b': [3,4,5,7,8], 'result': [1,3,9,8,3,4,5,7,8]},
             {'a': [9, 1, 1, 8, 7], 'b': [8, 6, 7], 'result': [9, 1, 1, 8, 7, 8, 6, 7]}]

all(merge(test['a'], test['b']) == test['result'] for test in test_data)

def merge(a, b):
    if a[-1] not in b:
        return a + b
    ...

def merge(a, b):
    while True:
        try:
            idx = b.index(a[-1]) + 1  # leftmost occurrence of a[-1] in b
        except ValueError:  # a[-1] not in b
            return a + b
        if a[-idx:] == b[:idx]:
            return a + b[:idx]

a = [1,2,3,4,1,2,3,4]
b = [3,4,1,2,3,4,5,6]
# result should be [1,2,3,4,1,2,3,4,5,6], but
# this algo produces [1,2,3,4,1,2,3,4,1,2,3,4,5,6]

def merge(a, b):
    results = []
    while True:
        try:
            idx = b.index(a[-1]) + 1  # leftmost occurrence of a[-1] in b
        except ValueError:  # a[-1] not in b
            results.append(a + b)
            break
        if a[-idx:] == b[:idx]:
            results.append(a + b[:idx])
    return min(results, key=len)

>>> a = [1, 3, 9, 8, 3, 4, 5]
>>> b = [3, 4, 5, 7, 8]

>>> matches = (i for i in xrange(len(b), 0, -1) if b[:i] == a[-i:])
>>> i = next(matches, 0)
>>> a + b[i:]
[1, 3, 9, 8, 3, 4, 5, 7, 8]

master = [1,3,9,8,3,4,5]
addition = [3,4,5,7,8]

def merge(master, addition):
    first = addition[0]
    n = max(len(master) - len(addition), 1)  # (1)
    while 1:
        try:
            n = master.index(first, n)       # (2)
        except ValueError:
            return master + addition

        if master[-n:] == addition[:n]:
            return master + addition[n:]
        n += 1

def merge(master, addition):
    overlap_lens = (i + 1 for i, e in enumerate(addition) if e == master[-1])
    for overlap_len in overlap_lens:
        for i in range(overlap_len):
            if master[-overlap_len + i] != addition[i]:
                break
        else:
            return master + addition[overlap_len:]
    return master + addition

def longest_common_substring(s1, s2):
    m = [[0] * (1 + len(s2)) for i in xrange(1 + len(s1))]
    longest, x_longest = 0, 0
    for x in xrange(1, 1 + len(s1)):
        for y in xrange(1, 1 + len(s2)):
            if s1[x - 1] == s2[y - 1]:
                m[x][y] = m[x - 1][y - 1] + 1
                if m[x][y] > longest:
                    longest = m[x][y]
                    x_longest = x
            else:
                m[x][y] = 0
    return x_longest - longest, x_longest

master = [1,3,9,8,3,4,5]
addition = [3,4,5,7,8]
s, e = longest_common_substring(master, addition)
if e - s > 1:
    print master[:s] + addition

master = [9, 1, 1, 8, 7]
addition = [8, 6, 7]
s, e = longest_common_substring(master, addition)
if e - s > 1:
    print master[:s] + addition
else:
    print master + addition

[1, 3, 9, 8, 3, 4, 5, 7, 8]
[9, 1, 1, 8, 7, 8, 6, 7]

def merge(master, addition):
    for n in xrange(1, len(master)):
        if master[-n:] == addition[:n]:
            return master + addition[n:]
    return master + addition

def merge(master, addition):
    indices = [len(master) - i for i, x in enumerate(master) if x == addition[0]]
    for n in indices:
        if master[-n:] == addition[:n]:
            return master + addition[n:]
    return master + addition

1234123141234
            3579
           3579
          3579
         3579
        3579
       3579
      3579
     3579
    3579
   3579
  3579
 3579
3579

1234123141234
  |   |    |
  |   |    3579
  |   3579
  3579

def join_two_lists(a, b):
  index = 0
  for i in xrange(len(b), 0, -1):
    #if everything from start to ith of b is the
    #same from the end of a at ith append the result
    if b[:i] == a[-i:]:
        index = i
        break

  return a + b[index:]

import pandas as pd, numpy as np

trainCompIdMaps = pd.DataFrame( { "compoundId": np.random.permutation( range(800) )[0:80], "partition": np.repeat( "train", 80).tolist()} )

testCompIdMaps = pd.DataFrame( {"compoundId": np.random.permutation( range(800) )[0:20], "partition": np.repeat( "test", 20).tolist()} )

# row-wise concatenation for two pandas
compoundIdMaps = pd.concat([trainCompIdMaps, testCompIdMaps], axis=0)

mergedCompIds = np.array(compoundIdMaps["compoundId"])