Several options come to mind:
(1) In later CL versions, the IF statement has the string operator “ct” for “Contains”.
(2) If you’re just concerned about the keystrokes, you could copy the field reference to an @variable and use that instead.
(3) You could do some tcl with [lcontain list element] before your IF to see if conditions are met and put the result (0 or 1) into an @variable and use that in your IF statement.
To elaborate on Chris’s options:
COPY
Source: =9 D G H J K M N O P
Destination: @temp_var
IF
@temp_var ct ~1(0).PRA(0).#3(0).[0]