In [27]: map( lambda f,p: f.match(p), list(patterns.itervalues()), vatids )
Out[27]: [None, <_sre.SRE_Match object at 0xb73bfdb0>, None]
The list can be all None or one of it is an re.Match instance.
What one liner check can I do on the returned list to tell me that the contents are all None?