Lets say I have:
a = r''' Example
This is a very annoying string
that takes up multiple lines
and h@s a// kind{s} of stupid symbols in it
ok String'''
I need a way to do a replace(or just delete) and text in between "This" and "ok" so that when I call it, a now equals:
a = "Example String"
I can't find any wildcards that seem to work. Any help is much appreciated.
You need Regular Expression:
>>> import re
>>> re.sub('\nThis.*?ok','',a, flags=re.DOTALL)
' Example String'
Another method is to use string splits:
def replaceTextBetween(originalText, delimeterA, delimterB, replacementText):
leadingText = originalText.split(delimeterA)[0]
trailingText = originalText.split(delimterB)[1]
return leadingText + delimeterA + replacementText + delimterB + trailingText
Limitations:
Use re.sub : It replaces the text between two characters or symbols or strings with desired character or symbol or string.
format: re.sub('A?(.*?)B', P, Q, flags=re.DOTALL)
where A : character or symbol or string B : character or symbol or string P : character or symbol or string which replaces the text between A and B Q : input string re.DOTALL : to match across all lines
import re
re.sub('\nThis?(.*?)ok', '', a, flags=re.DOTALL)
output : ' Example String'
Lets see an example with html code as input
input_string = '''<body> <h1>Heading</h1> <p>Paragraph</p><b>bold text</b></body>'''
Target : remove <p> tag
re.sub('<p>?(.*?)</p>', '', input_string, flags=re.DOTALL)
output : '<body> <h1>Heading</h1> <b>bold text</b></body>'
Target : replace <p> tag with word : test
re.sub('<p>?(.*?)</p>', 'test', input_string, flags=re.DOTALL)
otput : '<body> <h1>Heading</h1> test<b>bold text</b></body>'
The DOTALL flag is the key. Ordinarily, the '.' character doesn't match newlines, so you don't match across lines in a string. If you set the DOTALL flag, re will match '.*' across as many lines as it needs to.
If you want first and last words:
re.sub(r'^\s*(\w+).*?(\w+)$', r'\1 \2', a, flags=re.DOTALL)
