Replace characters in a dict - Python 3

Question

I am working with Python 3 and I want to replace the emoticons included in a dictionary.

For example

text = "Hi, I'm coming home :)"

#Create dictionary
dict_lookup = {':(' : 'sad',
               ':)' : 'happy'}

The desired output is:

Hi, I'm coming home happy

What is the most efficient way to achieve this result in Python 3?

`text.replace(':)', dict_lookup[text[-2:]])` – Christian Dean Aug 08 '17 at 12:05 — Christian Dean, Aug 08 '17 at 12:05

score 4 · Accepted Answer · answered Aug 08 '17 at 12:04

4

This should do the trick:

for emote, replacement in dict_lookup.items():
      text = text.replace(emote, replacement)

answered Aug 08 '17 at 12:04

Błażej Michalik

Does it make sense to use Regular Expression (re) in this case? – Alex Aug 08 '17 at 12:22
@Alex for such use cases `replace()` is always enough. Regular expressions come into play when you can't find the substring that you want to replace with a simple comparison. – Błażej Michalik Aug 08 '17 at 12:26

score 1 · Answer 2 · answered Aug 08 '17 at 12:05

1

Take a look at str.replace

It allows you to do text.replace(dict_key, dict_value)

answered Aug 08 '17 at 12:05

MrPromethee

2 Answers2