Say I have a string
string = "{1/100}"
I want to use regular expressions in Python to convert it into
new_string = "\frac{1}{100}"
I think I would need to use something like this
new_string = re.sub(r'{.+/.+}', r'', string)
But I'm stuck on what I would put in order to preserve the characters in the fraction, in this example 1 and 100.
You can use () to capture the numbers. Then use \1 and \2 to refer to them:
new_string = re.sub(r'{(.+)/(.+)}', r'\\frac{\1}{\2}', string)
# \frac{1}{100}
Note: Don't forget to escape the backslash \\.
Capture the numbers using parens and then reference them in the replacement text using \1 and \2. For example:
>>> print re.sub(r'{(.+)/(.+)}', r'\\frac{\1}{\2}', "{1/100}")
\frac{1}{100}
Anything inside the braces would be a number/number. So in the regex place numbers([0-9]) instead of a .(dot).
>>> import re
>>> string = "{1/100}"
>>> new = re.sub(r'{([0-9]+)/([0-9]+)}', r'\\frac{\1}{\2}', string)
>>> print new
\frac{1}{100}
Use re.match. It's more flexible:
>>> m = re.match(r'{(.+)/(.+)}', string)
>>> m.groups()
('1', '100')
>>> new_string = "\\frac{%s}{%s}"%m.groups()
>>> print new_string
\frac{1}{100}
