python regex to replace part of string

Question

Very simple question but I can't seem to figure it out.

The following code:

import re
addr = '800 W NORTH AVE'
re.sub(r'([a-zA-Z]+)', 'W North A', addr)

It gives me as a result 800 W North A W North A W North A instead of 800 W North A

I don't understand what am I doing wrong. Would appreciate any help.

Thanks

There's a tool included in c:\python27\tools\scripts\redemo.py (season to your environment) that will visualize regex matching for you. — thebjorn
– thebjorn, Commented Dec 10, 2016 at 20:36
I'm not sure what exactly your really trying to do, but for the above you could do '800 W NORTH AVE'.title() instead... — thebjorn
– thebjorn, Commented Dec 10, 2016 at 20:44

user92454 · Accepted Answer · 2016-12-10 20:40:05Z

2

You are not matching the space character. This makes every word get replaced with the replace string. You need something like this instead:

re.sub(r'(([a-zA-Z]+\?)+)', 'W North A', addr)

This matches one or more of a word followed by one or more spaces.

edited Dec 10, 2016 at 20:40

answered Dec 10, 2016 at 20:34

user92454

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ryugie · Accepted Answer · 2016-12-11 01:04:06Z

0

Like user92454 says, you want to use a space character, which is \s in Python regex.

You can use the pattern \s([A-Z\s]+) if you know the text you want to replace is always in caps. If not, you can use \s([A-z\s]+) (lower case 'z').

answered Dec 11, 2016 at 1:04

ryugie

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