Regex in Python - String between String excluding spaces

Question

I've been stumped on this one for a bit now. I have the following string:

LAT:  6.90N    LON: 80.58E    ELEV: 1097.6M

I need to extract 6.90N,80.58E, and 1097.6M.

The problem is that I iterate through other files with similar formats. There are a few files with missing values or other characters (i.e. ***** if no value is present).

I want to be able to capture these as best as possible. Is there a way to write a regular expression to capture the values between LAT:, LON:, and ELEV: without including the spaces?

Also check out stream-based parsing. I find that much faster for things like this. — Josiah
– Josiah, Commented Apr 20, 2015 at 21:13
Can you show a line, which you do not want to be matched? Are the values tab separated? — tommy.carstensen
– tommy.carstensen, Commented Apr 20, 2015 at 21:14

Totem · Accepted Answer · 2015-04-20 21:25:42Z

3

How about this:

>>> s = "LAT: 6.90N LON: 80.58E ELEV: 1097.6M"

>>> m = re.findall(r'(\d+\.\d+[A-Z])', s)

>>> print m
['6.90N', '80.58E', '1097.6M']

broken down:

(            # start of capturing group
\d+          # one or more numbers
\.           # a dot(escaped)
\d+          # one or more numbers
[A-Z]        # a letter
)            # end of capturing group

edited Apr 20, 2015 at 21:25

answered Apr 20, 2015 at 21:16

Totem

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2 Comments

Joran Beasley Over a year ago

I think you could get away with just re.findall("(\d+\.\d+[A-Z])",s)

Totem Over a year ago

@JoranBeasley Right you are.

Daniel Pryden · Accepted Answer · 2015-04-20 21:16:27Z

1

You don't need a regex for this:

input_str = 'LAT:  6.90N    LON: 80.58E    ELEV: 1097.6M'
# Split into strings separated by whitespace
parts = input_str.split()
# Take every other item from the list, skipping the first
lat, lon, elev = parts[1::2]

If every line has the format that it has "variables" separated by whitespace but there can be different sets of variables, you can just use a dictionary:

def line_to_dict(input_str):
  parts = input_str.split()
  return dict(itertools.izip(parts[::2], parts[1::2]))

answered Apr 20, 2015 at 21:16

Daniel Pryden

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Comments

tommy.carstensen · Accepted Answer · 2015-04-20 21:17:29Z

1

Given your current question there is no need for re and I would just do it like this:

s = 'LAT: 6.90N LON: 80.58E ELEV: 1097.6M'
l = s.split()
if l[1] != '*'*len(l[1]):
    print(l[1], l[3], l[5])

answered Apr 20, 2015 at 21:17

tommy.carstensen

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