replace exact word while ignoring punctuation

Question

I would like to know how to replace an exact word BUT with the exception of ignoring punctuation

I've see this answer which is nice but fails on the edges for me.

Here is an example to what I would like to replace:

"hi my name is John, and I am 30 yrs old."

to

"to hi my name is ted, and I am 30 yrs old."

Thanks

I'm confused. Does "ignoring punctuation" mean "removing punctuation from the end product", or "not doing anything special with existing punctuation, leaving it where it is"? If it's the former, why does your output still have punctuation? And if it's the latter, why did you mention it at all, and why did you link to a question about removing punctuation? — Kevin, Jun 04 '15 at 11:55
Yeah, no idea why punctuation is even being mentioned here. Do you just want to replace "John" with "Ted" in a string? — Rob Grant, Jun 04 '15 at 12:15

score 2 · Answer 1 · answered Jun 04 '15 at 11:52

2

>>> s = "hi my name is John, and I am 30 yrs old."
>>> new_s = s.replace("John", "Ted")
>>> new_s
'hi my name is Ted, and I am 30 yrs old.'

answered Jun 04 '15 at 11:52

Kevin

score 1 · Answer 2 · answered Jun 04 '15 at 11:48

1

\bJohn\b

This should do it for you.Replace by ted.

answered Jun 04 '15 at 11:48

vks

This is what the link I added suggested, try it, it doesn't word – Ofer Helman Jun 04 '15 at 11:52
1

@OferHelman apply like `re.sub(r"\bJohn\b","ted",test_str)` dont forget the `r` – vks Jun 04 '15 at 11:53
@OferHelman did this work? – vks Jun 04 '15 at 13:12

2 Answers2