Python: looking for a string within a string and then returning the strings around it

Question

import time
with open('txt.txt', 'r') as myfile:
    data=myfile.read().replace('\n', '')
pdf_content = data.split(" ")`
vocab = input('Vocab word to search for: ')

if vocab not in pdf_content:
    print('word not found....')
if vocab in pdf_content:
    for vocab in pdf_content:
        print((" ".join(pdf_content[1])))
time.sleep(200)

I want to basically search a body of text for a certain word and return a group of words around that 1 word.

ex. your paragraph is the quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dog and we wanted to search for brown, it would return quick brown fox since those are the surrounding words. I'm not sure how to do this but help would be greatly appreciated

Find index of word and get your required o/p using index-1, index and index+1 — Shivam Seth
– Shivam Seth, Commented Sep 19, 2018 at 2:06

Dani Mesejo · Accepted Answer · 2018-09-19 02:07:55Z

3

You could use a regular expression:

import re

text = 'the quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dog'

word = "brown"
for match in re.finditer(r"\w+\W+{}\W+\w+".format(word), text):
    print(match.group())

Output

quick brown fox

Regex

\w+ matches a word
\W+ followed by one or more characters that are not words
followed by the chosen word, in this case 'brown'

answered Sep 19, 2018 at 2:07

Dani Mesejo

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Comments

U13-Forward · Accepted Answer · 2018-09-19 02:13:34Z

0

Or a one-liner:

print(' '.join(s.split()[s.split().index(s2)-1:s.split().index(s2)+2]))

Demo:

s = 'the quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dog'
s2 = "brown"
print(' '.join(s.split()[s.split().index(s2)-1:s.split().index(s2)+2]))

Explanation:

join the strings of the index-1 to index+1 (+2 in this case)
index meaning the index of s2 in the split list from s

answered Sep 19, 2018 at 2:13

U13-Forward

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iBug · Accepted Answer · 2018-09-19 02:13:51Z

0

Try splitting the words and use indices:

pdf_content = "the quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog"
word = "brown"

words = pdf_content.split()
pos = words.index(word)
found = word
if pos > 0:
    found = words[pos - 1] + " " + found
if pos < len(words) - 1:
    found = found + " " + words[pos + 1]

print(found)

answered Sep 19, 2018 at 2:13

iBug

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