python strings remove 1 tab in string

Question

I have a string as

 "This is a small \t\t world"

Assume that the string has 2 tabs in between the words "small" and "world". How can I trim one of the tab spaces so that I get:

 "This is a small \t world"

The words "small" and "world" can appear only once in the sentence. Basically given two specific words, I want to trim the extra tab between them

How do you want to identify that? Does it have to be between the words 'small' and 'world'? At the end of the string? This is ambiguous. — Gareth Latty
– Gareth Latty, Commented Jan 18, 2013 at 18:24
Please check my edit. I want to remove the tab only between the words small and world. I do not want any other tabs to be replaced — arjun
– arjun, Commented Jan 18, 2013 at 18:24
What if those words appear multiple times? What if there is other stuff in between too? What if they are in a different order? It's hard to answer a question like this with such a vague specification of the problem. — Gareth Latty
– Gareth Latty, Commented Jan 18, 2013 at 18:26
I have a nagging suspicion that you have tried to simplify what you're actually doing. Are there any other variables? For example, could there be anything between small and world besides one space character on each side and any number of tabs? — Tim Pietzcker
– Tim Pietzcker, Commented Jan 18, 2013 at 18:26
The words "small" and "world" can appear only once in the sentence. Basically given two specific words, I want to trim the extra tab between them without editing any other tabs present in the sentence — arjun
– arjun, Commented Jan 18, 2013 at 18:31

ATOzTOA · Accepted Answer · 2013-01-18 19:06:25Z

2

Using re...

import re

s = b"This is        a small         world"

s = re.sub(r'(.*\bsmall *)\t+( *world\b.*)', r'\1\t\2', s)

print s

Output:

>>> 
This is          a small     world

This will keep all spaces before and after the two tabs.

edited Jan 18, 2013 at 19:06

answered Jan 18, 2013 at 18:24

ATOzTOA

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Comments

Brenden Brown · Accepted Answer · 2013-01-18 18:37:19Z

1

def remove_tab(st, word1, word2):
    index1 = st.find(word1)
    index2 = st[index1:].find(word2)
    replacement = st[index1:index2].replace('\t\t', '\t')
    return st[:index1] + replacement + st[index2:]

answered Jan 18, 2013 at 18:37

Brenden Brown

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Comments

Ashwini Chaudhary · Accepted Answer · 2013-01-18 18:53:59Z

1

using regex:

In [114]: def func(st,*words):
    rep=" \t ".join(words)
    reg="\b%s\s?\t{1,}\s?%s\b"%(words[0],words[1])
    return re.sub(reg,rep,st)
   .....: 

In [118]: strs='This is \t\t\t a small\t\t\tworld, very small world?'

In [119]: func(strs,"small","world")
Out[119]: 'This is \t\t\t a small \t world, very small world?'

In [120]: func(strs,"is","a")
Out[120]: 'This is \t a small\t\t\tworld, very small world?'

edited Jan 18, 2013 at 18:53

answered Jan 18, 2013 at 18:41

Ashwini Chaudhary

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1 Comment

DSM Over a year ago

Maybe throw a \b in there? "small \t\t worldly case".

Brian · Accepted Answer · 2013-01-18 18:36:37Z

0

You can use the Python re module to use regular expressions:

import re

s = "This is \t\t a small \t\t world"

s1 = re.sub(r'(?<=small +)\t+(?= +world)', '\t', s)

This will find one or more of \t in a row between "small " and " world" and replace the entire sequence of \t's with a single \t.

edited Jan 18, 2013 at 18:36

answered Jan 18, 2013 at 18:28

Brian

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3 Comments

root Over a year ago

I think you should probably make it handle extra whitespace between the small & world

Brian Over a year ago

I edited the code sample to account for one or more spaces characters next to small and world.

DSM Over a year ago

look-behind requires fixed-width pattern

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