Decision table set operations and using external reference data

Hi everyone. I hope you're looking forward to the weekend. I am asking for ideas to handle the following scenarios with the decision table feature. 

Scenario 1:

An input is a list of strings with variable sizes. 

Example input instances:

[ "value 1", "value 2", "value 3"]

[ "value a", "value b"]

The input list of variable sizes is checked against a predetermined set of items to answer the following question. Do the input list items exist in the predetermined set of items?

given this input [ "value 1", "value 2", "value 3"]  does at least 1 input element contains in { "value x", "value y", "value 2"}? In this case, the result will be true. 

Question: what is the best approach to solving this scenario?

Scenario 2:

The following document indicates the following. 

Leverage existing application reference data: Decisions can use your application reference data (like case statuses) that is stored in constants, database tables, or external systems in their logic, so you don't have to duplicate the entry of these values.

https://docs.appian.com/suite/help/23.2/Appian_Decisions.html#:~:text=Leverage%20existing%20application%20reference%20data,the%20entry%20of%20these%20values

Love to get your help to point me to additional information to do this so that I can create the following rule.

Input "status_code_21Z" contains in the list of emergency_status_codes? The emergency_status_codes is a dynamic list for another system. 

Thank you kindly for your support.