format a string without lossing its list format, python

Question

I have a string file that looks like this:

["2004" "0" "23" "4.5"]
["2004" "0" "26" "4.8"]
["2004" "0" "16" "3.5"]
["2004" "0" "25" "7.5"]

However at the time that I try to manipulate it, the program gives me an error, this doesn't reads the " (of course), I've been looking for a code that not only eliminates that char but also [ and that keeps my list instead of concatenating it into a whole line. Any ideas?

the final outcome will be exactly the same but without

[" " " " " " "    "]

the code that I'm using is the following:

final= re.sub(r'[^0-9.\s\n], r' ', list)

what this is doing is:

2004 0 23 4.5 2004 0 26 4.8

Can you give the output you would like to see? I'm not sure I follow from your description. — Holloway
– Holloway, Commented Sep 11, 2014 at 19:09

Veedrac · Accepted Answer · 2014-09-11 19:32:34Z

1

The naïve answer is just to remove those characters:

myfilecontents = """\
["2004" "0" "23" "4.5"]
["2004" "0" "26" "4.8"]
["2004" "0" "16" "3.5"]
["2004" "0" "25" "7.5"]"""

print(myfilecontents.replace('"', '').replace('[', '').replace(']', ''))
#>>> 2004 0 23 4.5
#>>> 2004 0 26 4.8
#>>> 2004 0 16 3.5
#>>> 2004 0 25 7.5

answered Sep 11, 2014 at 19:32

Veedrac

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2 Comments

Mel Over a year ago

thank you this does takes off the undessired chars however by ldoing this my txt file looses its list format. so instead it shows now all the information in just one line instead of breakinbg it up into a list.

Veedrac Over a year ago

@Mel it's likely something else is causing this, as my code doesn't change newlines at all.

Mauro Baraldi · Accepted Answer · 2014-09-11 20:15:17Z

0

Indeed there is a lot of ways to solve this problem. Using the combo maktrans + replace + split should be an approach.

from string import maketrans

text = """["2004" "0" "23" "4.5"]
["2004" "0" "26" "4.8"]
["2004" "0" "16" "3.5"]
["2004" "0" "25" "7.5"]"""

parsed = text.translate(maketrans('" ', '#,')).replace('#', '').split('\n')
parsed = [eval(i) for i in parsed]

answered Sep 11, 2014 at 20:15

Mauro Baraldi

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4 Comments

Mel Over a year ago

Thank you Mauro, I tried it, but im still getting the same result all the lines into one same line

Mauro Baraldi Over a year ago

Well, do you want to convert it into Python lists, don't? This is what it is doing!

Veedrac Over a year ago

Note that literal_eval is probably a better choice here.

abarnert Over a year ago

@Veedrac: That depends on what the OP actually wants here. Is he actually looking for a list of strings for each line?

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