Regex Replace multiple words, use them to build list

Question

Does anyone know how I could best replace all instances of [word] in a text with %s and then build a list or tuple of those [word]s?

Basically, I'm generating PDFs - the text of the PDF I am storing in a TextField in a database - let's say it looks like:

"Hello [patient], you had a study on [date..."

when I generate the PDF on the fly, I want to pass the PDF generator:

"Hello %s, you had a study on %s"%(patient,date)

I don't really feel comfortable with regex. I was reading up on sub and match - but I was wondering if there was a way I could replace the [words] and build the tuple in one line of code.

dawg · Accepted Answer · 2016-02-28 03:34:50Z

3

You can do this without a regex. Consider:

>>> tgt="Hello [patient], you had a study on [date]"
>>> template=tgt.replace('[', '{').replace(']', '}')
>>> data={'patient':'Bob', 'date':'10/24/2013'}
>>> template.format(**data)
'Hello Bob, you had a study on 10/24/2013'

answered Feb 28, 2016 at 3:34

dawg

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2 Comments

amchugh89 Over a year ago

wow very nice in that it avoids the regex, but is there a way to build out the list automatically - maybe I can think of something now that i'm more awake

amchugh89 Over a year ago

Actually, I could have a hard-coded dict in my django view - w/ all 30 or so possible [word]s that can be selected - something like {'patient': pat.name, 'date', exam.date,'ssn':pat.ssn...} Where pat and ex are django model instances - your code will probably do the trick

Quinn · Accepted Answer · 2016-02-28 03:12:36Z

1

Please try this pattern:

>>> import re
>>> input = "Hello [patient], you had a study on [date 10-10-16]."
>>> re.sub('\[[^\]]+]', '%s', input)
'Hello %s, you had a study on %s.'

answered Feb 28, 2016 at 3:12

Quinn

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Comments

Iron Fist · Accepted Answer · 2016-02-28 05:50:19Z

0

Same solution using re.sub but with different pattern:

>>> inp = "Hello [patient], you had a study on [date]."
>>> 
>>> re.sub(r'\[.*?\]', '%s', inp)
'Hello %s, you had a study on %s.'

If you are willing to replace those params with values from a data object like dictionary for instance:

>>> data
{'date': '10/24/2013', 'patient': 'Bob'}

Then I would do it this way:

>>> inp = "Hello [patient], you had a study on [date]."
>>> data
{'date': '10/24/2013', 'patient': 'Bob'}
>>>
>>> pat = re.compile(r'\[(?P<param>.*?)\]')
>>> pat.sub(lambda m: data[m.group('param')], inp)
'Hello Bob, you had a study on 10/24/2013.'

edited Feb 28, 2016 at 5:50

answered Feb 28, 2016 at 4:43

Iron Fist

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