Python -- Split string into list through regex list

Question

I'm looking to convert a single string to a list of strings based upon a list of corresponding RegEx values.

My code currently looks like this:

def regexSplit(s, regexList):
    retList = [""]*len(regexList)

    i = 0
    for e in enumerate(regexList):
        retList[i] = regex.search(regexList[i], s)
        s = s.split(retList[i], 1)[1]

        i += 1

    return retList

When attempting to run the code, however, I am getting the error:

in regexSplit
    s = s.split(retList[i], 1)[1]
TypeError: expected a character buffer object

Goal Example:

I'm trying to get it so that passing values such that if

s = "|Y4000|,03/02/2015,2000,||,|REDLANDS|,|CA|,|92375|"

and

regexList = ['[\w\d]{5}', '[0,1][1-9][/][0-3][0-9][/][\d]{4}', '[-]?[\d]*', '[^|]{0,40}', '[\w\s]{0,30}', '[\w]{2}', '[\d]{0,5}']

the returned list would be:

["Y4000", "03/02/2015", "2000", "", "REDLANDS", "CA", "92375"]

Thanks in advance.

I think you might be better off replacing any split chars with a , and then just splitting on , It feels like that's more close to what you want to do. — Dylan Lawrence
– Dylan Lawrence, Commented Nov 22, 2015 at 19:41
The CSV-ish text file that I'm working with makes it difficult to use such reasonable approaches (some value fields contain , and " and other such complications...) — Sam
– Sam, Commented Nov 22, 2015 at 19:44
Yes, so we simply do a for loop over all replacements so for r in replacements: s.replace(r,',') that will replace all dividers with commas, then we split on the commas. — Dylan Lawrence
– Dylan Lawrence, Commented Nov 22, 2015 at 19:49

Hellmar Becker · Accepted Answer · 2015-11-22 19:45:50Z

2

For what you are trying to achieve, split is not the right function. Write one regex and create a subexpression for each of the strings you want to parse. Start with something like ([\w\d]{5}).*?([,][0,1][1-9][/][0-3][0-9][/][\d]{4}).*? ... and so forth.

Then you can use

p = re.compile('<your regex>')
m = p.match('ab')
retTuple = m.group(1,2,3,4,5,6)

and you can use the resulting Tuple just like a list (except that it is immutable).

answered Nov 22, 2015 at 19:45

Hellmar Becker

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