Some tough string manipulation in Python

Question

I have this string in Python:

s = "foo(a) foo(something), foo(stuff)\n foo(1)"

I want to replace every foo instance with its content:

s = "a something, stuff\n 1"

The string s is not constant and the foo content changes every time. I did something using regex, split and regex, but got a very large function. How can I do it in a simple and concise way? Thks in advance.

What values of x are allowed inside foo(x)? Are parentheses allowed, i.e. foo(hello (there))? If not, this should be simple with capturing groups — matt b
– matt b, Commented Jun 3, 2012 at 20:43
matt b: Great question. Does not allow parentheses. It allows identificators (essentially word) — Academia
– Academia, Commented Jun 3, 2012 at 20:45

BrenBarn · Accepted Answer · 2012-06-03 20:47:01Z

6

>>> x = "foo(a) foo(something), foo(stuff)\n foo(1)"
>>> re.sub(r'foo\(([^)]*)\)', r'\1', x)
u'a something, stuff\n 1'

answered Jun 3, 2012 at 20:47

BrenBarn

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Community · Accepted Answer · 2017-05-23 10:09:15Z

0

Since you say that the content of foo doesn't contain parentheses, Regex really doesn't seem needed. Why don't you just do:

>>> s = "foo(a) foo(something), foo(stuff)\n foo(1)"
>>> s = s.replace('foo(','')
>>> s = s.replace(')','')
>>> print s
'a something, stuff\n 1'

See Python: string.replace vs re.sub

edited May 23, 2017 at 10:09

CommunityBot

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answered Jun 3, 2012 at 21:45

Junuxx

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