Helper for membership check for ``key`` in ``cat``.

    This is a helper method for :method:`__contains__`
    and :class:`CategoricalIndex.__contains__`.

    Returns True if ``key`` is in ``cat.categories`` and the
    location of ``key`` in ``categories`` is in ``container``.

    Parameters
    ----------
    cat : :class:`Categorical`or :class:`categoricalIndex`
    key : a hashable object
        The key to check membership for.
    container : Container (e.g. list-like or mapping)
        The container to check for membership in.

    Returns
    -------
    is_in : bool
        True if ``key`` is in ``self.categories`` and location of
        ``key`` in ``categories`` is in ``container``, else False.

    Notes
    -----
    This method does not check for NaN values. Do that separately
    before calling this method.

def contains(cat, key, container):
    """
    Helper for membership check for ``key`` in ``cat``.

    This is a helper method for :method:`__contains__`
    and :class:`CategoricalIndex.__contains__`.

    Returns True if ``key`` is in ``cat.categories`` and the
    location of ``key`` in ``categories`` is in ``container``.

    Parameters
    ----------
    cat : :class:`Categorical`or :class:`categoricalIndex`
    key : a hashable object
        The key to check membership for.
    container : Container (e.g. list-like or mapping)
        The container to check for membership in.

    Returns
    -------
    is_in : bool
        True if ``key`` is in ``self.categories`` and location of
        ``key`` in ``categories`` is in ``container``, else False.

    Notes
    -----
    This method does not check for NaN values. Do that separately
    before calling this method.
    """
    hash(key)

    # get location of key in categories.
    # If a KeyError, the key isn't in categories, so logically
    #  can't be in container either.
    try:
        loc = cat.categories.get_loc(key)
    except KeyError:
        return False

    # loc is the location of key in categories, but also the *value*
    # for key in container. So, `key` may be in categories,
    # but still not in `container`. Example ('b' in categories,
    # but not in values):
    # 'b' in Categorical(['a'], categories=['a', 'b'])  # False
    if is_scalar(loc):
        return loc in container
    else:
        # if categories is an IntervalIndex, loc is an array.
        return any(loc_ in container for loc_ in loc)