Python: Removing random whitespace from a string of numbers [duplicate]

Question

Tried a different number of combinations, none to avail.

Basically this is the string of numbers that I have:

20101002  100224   1    1044      45508  1001  1002  1003  1004  1005  1006

Output I'm after:

20101002 100224 1 1044 45508 1001 1002 1003 1004 1005 1006

Basically all whitespace before and after the last number have to be trimmed. On top of that there should only be one whitespace between the numbers.

I should add that the code I currently have is as follows and only deals with the whitespace at the start and end of the string:

row = line.strip().split(' ')

Any help is much appreciated, thanks!

Did you try anything?

Chad S.
– Chad S.

2015-10-26 20:30:09 +00:00
Commented Oct 26, 2015 at 20:30 — Chad S.
– Chad S., Commented Oct 26, 2015 at 20:30
use a regex and re.sub() method

Swastik Padhi
– Swastik Padhi

2015-10-26 20:31:09 +00:00
Commented Oct 26, 2015 at 20:31 — Swastik Padhi
– Swastik Padhi, Commented Oct 26, 2015 at 20:31

Pynchia · Accepted Answer · 2015-10-26 20:34:42Z

5

this

s = '20101002  100224   1    1044      45508  1001  1002  1003  1004  1005  1006'
new_s = ' '.join(s.split())
print(new_s)

produces

20101002 100224 1 1044 45508 1001 1002 1003 1004 1005 1006

Basically, there are two steps involved:

first we split the string into words with s.split(), which returns this list

['20101002', '100224', '1', '1044', '45508', '1001', '1002', '1003', '1004', '1005', '1006']

then we pass the list to ' '.join, which joins all the elements of the list using the space character between them

edited Oct 26, 2015 at 20:34

answered Oct 26, 2015 at 20:29

Pynchia

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6 Comments

user4659009 Over a year ago

I get ` , , , ,2,0,1,0,1,0,0,2, , ,1,0,0,2,2,4, , , ,1, , , , ,1,0,4,4, , , , , , ,4,5,5,0,8, , ,1,0,0,1, , ,1,0,0,2, , ,1,0,0,3, , ,1,0,0,4, , ,1,0,0,5, , ,1,0,0,6," "` back. Could it be because I'm using Python 3?

Pynchia Over a year ago

I have tried the code on python 3.4.3 and it works fine. Copy and paste it

user4659009 Over a year ago

it looks good when I print it on terminal but it changes format when I export it to a csv :/

with open(bad_csv_file, 'w') as myfile:       wr = csv.writer(myfile)       for line in bad_csv:         row = ' '.join(line.split())         print(row)         wr.writerow(row)

Any ideas why?

Pynchia Over a year ago

maybe it's because the for loop is iterating over bad_csv instead of myfile?

user4659009 Over a year ago

fname = "track_param_stoch.txt" bad_csv_file = 'bad_hist_csv.csv' bad_csv = []  with open(fname) as f:       lines = f.readlines()   for line in lines:       good_csv.append(line) if pattern.match(line) else bad_csv.append(line)

it's iterating correctly, guess this is a output to csv problem not a strip whitespace one :/

|

fl00r · Accepted Answer · 2015-10-26 20:32:55Z

3

import re
text = "20101002  100224   1    1044      45508  1001  1002  1003  1004  1005  1006"
re.sub(r"\s+", " ", text)
#=> 20101002 100224 1 1044 45508 1001 1002 1003 1004 1005 1006

answered Oct 26, 2015 at 20:32

fl00r

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Comments

Carson Crane · Accepted Answer · 2015-10-26 20:32:21Z

0

By default Python's str.split method splits on whitespace.

a = "20101002  100224   1    1044      45508  1001  1002  1003  1004  1005  1006"

" ".join(a.split())

answered Oct 26, 2015 at 20:32

Carson Crane

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