Python - splitting a string twice

Question

I have some data that looks like "string,string,string:otherstring,otherstring,otherstring".

I want to manipulate the first set of "string"s one at a time. If I split the input and delimit it based off a colon, I will then end up with a list. I then cannot split this again because "'list' object has no attribute 'split'". Alternatively, if I decide to delimit based off a comma, then that will return everything (including stuff after the comma, which I don't want to manipulate). rsplit has the same problem. Now even with a list, I could still manipulate the first entries by using [0], [1] etc. except for the fact that the number of "string"s is always changing, so I am not able to hardcode the numbers in place. Any ideas on how to get around this list limitation?

You might want to take a look at this solution stackoverflow.com/questions/1059559/… — Rod Xavier
– Rod Xavier, Commented Apr 24, 2014 at 3:12

Óscar López · Accepted Answer · 2014-04-24 03:48:43Z

14

Try this:

import re

s = 'string,string,string:otherstring,otherstring,otherstring'
re.split(r'[,:]', s)
=> ['string', 'string', 'string', 'otherstring', 'otherstring', 'other string']

We're using regular expressions and the split() method for splitting a string with more than one delimiter. Or if you want to manipulate the first group of strings in a separate way from the second group, we can create two lists, each one with the strings in each group:

[x.split(',') for x in s.split(':')]
=> [['string', 'string', 'string'], ['otherstring', 'otherstring', 'otherstring']]

… Or if you just want to retrieve the strings in the first group, simply do this:

s.split(':')[0].split(',')
=> ['string', 'string', 'string']

edited Apr 24, 2014 at 3:48

answered Apr 24, 2014 at 3:12

Óscar López

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3 Comments

aruisdante Over a year ago

Was going to post an answer with list-comps and chains, but this is much cleaner.

Peter Over a year ago

Thanks for the edit. I must not have explained myself well enough because the issue is that I don't need to process any of the strings after the comma (which is why I named the examples 'string' and 'otherstring'). However, your x.split idea will likely solve my problem now, as I'll just work with the content of the first "group". Thanks.

Óscar López Over a year ago

@Peter yup, the question wasn't clear. But now it is! see my last update, and that's it. Please don't forget to accept this answer ;)

A.J. Uppal · Accepted Answer · 2014-04-24 03:17:17Z

2

Use a couple join() statements to convert back to a string:

>>> string = "string,string,string:otherstring,otherstring,otherstring"
>>> ' '.join(' '.join(string.split(':')).split(',')).split()
['string', 'string', 'string', 'otherstring', 'otherstring', 'otherstring']
>>>

answered Apr 24, 2014 at 3:17

A.J. Uppal

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Comments

ammar sami · Accepted Answer · 2019-09-20 12:39:33Z

0

text = "string,string,string:otherstring,otherstring,otherstring"
replace = text.replace(":", ",").split(",")
print(replace)

['string', 'string', 'string', 'otherstring', 'otherstring', 'otherstring']

edited Sep 20, 2019 at 12:39

answered Jan 25, 2018 at 23:22

ammar sami

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