Python Using Regex to replace a list of words

Question

I would like to replace a list of words using the RegEx module, but I have failed even after many attempts.

#full_list.txt
#Tab is the delimiter
#The left column is the list of words to be searched
#The right column is the list of words to be replaced

%!あ ［×啞］    @#あ [啞]
%!あい きょう ［\(愛嬌\)・\(愛▷敬\)］   @#あいきょう [愛嬌]
    .
    .
    .

My codes are as follows:

import re

with open('full_list.txt', 'r', encoding='utf-8') as f:
    search_list = [line.strip().split('\t')[0] for line in f]

with open('full_list.txt', 'r', encoding='utf-8') as f:
    replace_list = [line.strip().split('\t')[1] for line in f]

with open('document.txt', 'r', encoding='utf-8') as f:
    content = f.read()

def replace_func(x, content):
    content = re.sub(search_list[x], replace_list[x], content)
    return content

x = 0
while x < 30:
    content = replace_func(x, content)
    x+=1

with open('new_document.txt', 'w', encoding='utf-8') as f:
    f.write(content)

After running the codes, some words can be replaced while some cannot. What could have been wrong with the codes?

@falsetru It is not. There are around 70,000 words to be replaced. I just test the first 30 items to see if there could be something wrong, and unfortunately there is. — DanEng
– DanEng, Commented Feb 14, 2015 at 10:56
@AvinashRaj Hi Avinash, nice to see you again. My expected output is to replace the words in the list_search with those in the list_replace. — DanEng
– DanEng, Commented Feb 14, 2015 at 11:06

Daniel · Accepted Answer · 2015-02-14 10:56:17Z

2

If you only want to replace words, don't use regular expressions, but the replace-Method for strings:

with open('full_list.txt', 'r', encoding='utf-8') as f:
    search_and_replace = [line.strip().split('\t') for line in f]

with open('document.txt', 'r', encoding='utf-8') as f:
    content = f.read()

for search, repl in search_and_replace:
    content = content.replace(search, repl)

with open('new_document.txt', 'w', encoding='utf-8') as f:
    f.write(content)

answered Feb 14, 2015 at 10:56

Daniel

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4 Comments

DanEng Over a year ago

Using your codes, there are still some lines cannot be replaced. For example: %!あいぎ［合い着・▷間着］<sub>アヒ–</sub> @#あいぎ [合い着・間着]

Daniel Over a year ago

Did you consider, that you are using different kinds of square brackets?

DanEng Over a year ago

I have considered that square bracket; however, I haven't figured out why [ could make the string replacement to be failed. Could you please explain that? And after all, that's the reason I used re.sub at the beginning, as this function worked nicely.

Daniel Over a year ago

The character ［ is not the same as [. Second, some characters have special meaning in regular expressions like [.

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