Python Use Regex Sub Multiple Times in 1 Pass

Question

Is there a way to combine multiple regex statements into one so it can do different subs on a single pass?

no_Punct = re.sub('(\w)([?:!.,;-]+)(\s)',r'\1 ',raw)
no_Punct = re.sub('(\s)([-]+)(\s)',r'\1',no_Punct)

The input string is 'raw'. I am trying to strip certain punctuation at the ends of words and remove hyphens that are surrounded by a space on each side. Can I combine both of these into one statement?

Given the input of: This is a sentence! One-fourth equals .25.

Output is: This is a sentence one fourth equals .25

can you show some sample input and expected outputs?

Ashwini Chaudhary
– Ashwini Chaudhary

2012-10-31 23:13:46 +00:00
Commented Oct 31, 2012 at 23:13 — Ashwini Chaudhary
– Ashwini Chaudhary, Commented Oct 31, 2012 at 23:13
Sample input/output is added.

M. Rogers
– M. Rogers

2012-11-06 21:17:36 +00:00
Commented Nov 6, 2012 at 21:17 — M. Rogers
– M. Rogers, Commented Nov 6, 2012 at 21:17

Eric · Accepted Answer · 2012-10-31 23:36:52Z

5

Trivially, by just substituting one into the other:

no_Punct = re.sub('(\s)([-]+)(\s)', r'\1', re.sub('(\w)([?:!.,;-]+)(\s)', r'\1 ', raw))

Although this may also work:

no_Punct = re.sub('(?<=\w)[?:!.,;-]+(?=\s)|(?<=\s)-+\s', '', raw)

edited Oct 31, 2012 at 23:36

answered Oct 31, 2012 at 23:13

Eric

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1 Comment

M. Rogers Over a year ago

For the first method you posted, wouldn't that still make two passes? One pass is made to eliminate all punctuation at the end of a word/sentence and then that output is fed into the next sub. That still looks like 2 passes through the whole string. Is that correct?

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