Python regex split but retain certain characters for split

Question

I have the following text

text = "Perennials. Stolons slender. Perianth bristles 6 or 7, ca. 2 × as long as nutlet"

I want to split the passage using the separate defined as ".\s[A-Z]". However, I still wish to retain the [A-Z] within the original sentence, such that the output is this:

['Perennials',
 'Stolons slender',
 'Perianth bristles 6 or 7, ca. 2 × as long as nutlet']

So far I have done is:

re.split(r'\.\s[A-Z]', text)

but it removed the first alphabets:

['Perennials',
 'tolons slender',
 'erianth bristles 6 or 7, ca. 2 × as long as nutlet']

Can anyone help? Thanks~

Tim Biegeleisen · Accepted Answer · 2018-12-18 13:30:12Z

2

Split using a lookahead:

result = re.split(r'\.\s(?=[A-Z])', text)
print(result)

['Perennials', 'Stolons slender', 'Perianth bristles 6 or 7, ca. 2 × as long as nutlet']

The lookahead (?=[A-Z]) will assert, but not consume, that what follows the dot and space is a capital letter.

edited Dec 18, 2018 at 13:30

answered Dec 18, 2018 at 13:29

Tim Biegeleisen

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1 Comment

Jake Over a year ago

ok thats fast, I was still trying to find the edit button to change the title!

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