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I have some data that looks like "string,string,string:otherstring,otherstring,otherstring".

I want to manipulate the first set of "string"s one at a time. If I split the input and delimit it based off a colon, I will then end up with a list. I then cannot split this again because "'list' object has no attribute 'split'". Alternatively, if I decide to delimit based off a comma, then that will return everything (including stuff after the comma, which I don't want to manipulate). rsplit has the same problem. Now even with a list, I could still manipulate the first entries by using [0], [1] etc. except for the fact that the number of "string"s is always changing, so I am not able to hardcode the numbers in place. Any ideas on how to get around this list limitation?

Peter
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    You might want to take a look at this solution http://stackoverflow.com/questions/1059559/python-strings-split-with-multiple-separators – Rod Xavier Apr 24 '14 at 03:12

3 Answers3

14

Try this:

import re

s = 'string,string,string:otherstring,otherstring,otherstring'
re.split(r'[,:]', s)
=> ['string', 'string', 'string', 'otherstring', 'otherstring', 'other string']

We're using regular expressions and the split() method for splitting a string with more than one delimiter. Or if you want to manipulate the first group of strings in a separate way from the second group, we can create two lists, each one with the strings in each group:

[x.split(',') for x in s.split(':')]
=> [['string', 'string', 'string'], ['otherstring', 'otherstring', 'otherstring']]

… Or if you just want to retrieve the strings in the first group, simply do this:

s.split(':')[0].split(',')
=> ['string', 'string', 'string']
Óscar López
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    Was going to post an answer with list-comps and chains, but this is *much* cleaner. – aruisdante Apr 24 '14 at 03:14
  • Thanks for the edit. I must not have explained myself well enough because the issue is that I don't need to process any of the strings after the comma (which is why I named the examples 'string' and 'otherstring'). However, your x.split idea will likely solve my problem now, as I'll just work with the content of the first "group". Thanks. – Peter Apr 24 '14 at 03:31
  • @Peter yup, the question wasn't clear. But now it is! see my last update, and that's it. Please don't forget to [accept](http://meta.stackexchange.com/questions/5234/how-does-accepting-an-answer-work) this answer ;) – Óscar López Apr 24 '14 at 03:49
2

Use a couple join() statements to convert back to a string:

>>> string = "string,string,string:otherstring,otherstring,otherstring"
>>> ' '.join(' '.join(string.split(':')).split(',')).split()
['string', 'string', 'string', 'otherstring', 'otherstring', 'otherstring']
>>>
A.J. Uppal
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text = "string,string,string:otherstring,otherstring,otherstring"
replace = text.replace(":", ",").split(",")
print(replace)

['string', 'string', 'string', 'otherstring', 'otherstring', 'otherstring']

ammar sami
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