Python - Removing special character from string

Question

I have this below text and I am trying to remove the special character shown in the image using Python.

Update (pasting the text):

145,Kevin,07/06/2018 15:12:37,Kevin,nan,nan,"have to clear outstanding tasks. 
check schedule "

I tried the below but had no luck

DF['col'] = re.sub("[^a-zA-Z]", " ", str(DF['col']))

Could anyone assist on this. Thanks..

The image can't help, please copy/paste the actual text into the question. — Wiktor Stribiżew, Jul 25 '18 at 07:14
@WiktorStribiżew, when I try to copy paste the special character does not show up. Rather it only shows an empty space. That was the reason to give a screenshot of the text. — Kevin Nash, Jul 25 '18 at 07:15
You can take a look at this. https://stackoverflow.com/questions/5843518/remove-all-special-characters-punctuation-and-spaces-from-string — Lê Tư Thành, Jul 25 '18 at 07:15
You lost the original text I believe, there is no special chars here. Do not try to format the text. Copy it exactly. — Wiktor Stribiżew, Jul 25 '18 at 07:21
@WiktorStribiżew, when I paste the text the part that has the special character gets replaced with an empty space and the remaining text gets written on the next line.. I did not change anything when I pasted the text — Kevin Nash, Jul 25 '18 at 07:23
If it is a line break, remove the line break - `DF['col'] = DF['col'].str.replace(r'\r?\n', '')` — Wiktor Stribiżew, Jul 25 '18 at 07:26

score 0 · Answer 1 · answered Jul 25 '18 at 07:23

0

I think you just missed out a +

try

DF['col'] = re.sub("[^A-Za-z0-9]+", " ", str(DF['col']))

answered Jul 25 '18 at 07:23

Henry Yik

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score 0 · Answer 2 · answered Jul 25 '18 at 08:47

import re,string
s='145,Kevin,07/06/2018 15:12:37,Kevin,nan,nan,"have to clear outstanding tasks. ♔ \ncheck schedule '
punc=re.escape(string.punctuation)
re.sub(fr"[^\w\s{punc}]","",s)
Out:
'145,Kevin,07/06/2018 15:12:37,Kevin,nan,nan,"have to clear outstanding tasks.  \ncheck schedule '

score 0 · Answer 3 · answered Jul 25 '18 at 08:48

0

df['col'] = re.sub('[^A-Za-z0-9]+',' ',str(df['col'])

If you want to apply the function to all the rows, you might do:

df['col'] = df['col'].map(lambda x: re.sub('[^A-Za-z0-9]+',' ',str(df['col'])))

answered Jul 25 '18 at 08:48

Sha Li

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Python - Removing special character from string

3 Answers3