python use variable inside command.replace

Question

This is driving me crazy. I have a string like this:

Sheridan School III

In a list like this:

Sheridan School III
Lake Bluff Elementary II
Barrington IV

I'd like to make the trailing portion into a variable homeseries

And make the portion that precedes that into variable homeclub

When I split the string I can get the series, no problem, as in below.

But I cannot use that series inside the .replace string, where I'd like to just use it to get rid of the last part of the original string. How do I use a variable inside .replace? Python throws an error and I'm sure there is a simple way to reference this as a variable.

homeclubfull = "Sheridan School III"
homeclublist = homeclubfull.split(" ")
homeseries = homeclublist[-1:]    # this should return "III"
homeclub=homeclubfull.replace(homeseries,'')
print homeclub, home series

error thrown:

import.py:51: TypeError: expected a character buffer object

Martijn Pieters · Accepted Answer · 2013-04-20 21:01:06Z

2

Split from the end with the str.rsplit() method and a limit:

homeclub, homeseries = homeclubfull.rsplit(None, 1)

Demo:

>>> homeclubfull = "Sheridan School III"
>>> homeclub, homeseries = homeclubfull.rsplit(None, 1)
>>> homeclub
'Sheridan School'
>>> homeseries
'III'

The error you get because you were trying to pass a list to .replace(), not a string; you wanted this instead:

homeseries = homeclublist[-1]   # Note, no :

You were slicing the list, not selecting one element. Slicing results in a list, always:

>>> homeclubfull.split()[-1:]
['III']
>>> homeclubfull.split()[-1]
'III'

edited Apr 20, 2013 at 21:01

answered Apr 20, 2013 at 20:52

Martijn Pieters

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1 Comment

Todd Curry Over a year ago

Not only did you fix it (thanks) you educated me (thanks ^2)- you're fantastic, Martijn!!

jurgenreza · Accepted Answer · 2013-04-20 21:02:23Z

0

Your problem would be solved if instead of homeclublist[-1:] you used homeclublist[-1] because the first one returns a list (it leaves a trailing space that you can strip).

You could also do this without replace; by slicing the part of the list that you want as opposed to the part that you don't want and then replace:

homeclubfull = "Sheridan School III"
homeclublist = homeclubfull.split()
homeseries = ' '.join(homeclublist[:-1])
print(homeseries)

answered Apr 20, 2013 at 21:02

jurgenreza

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1 Comment

Todd Curry Over a year ago

Thanks, Jurgenreza -- appreciate the clarification!!

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