Parsing String with Python

Question

How can I parse a string ['FED590498'] in python, so than I can get all numeric values 590498 and chars FED separately.

Some Samples:

['ICIC889150']
['FED889150']
['MFL541606']

and [ ] is not part of string...

Answer 1

Given the requirement that there are always 3 or 4 letters you can use:

import re
characters, numbers = re.findall(r'([A-Z]{3,4})(\d+)', 'FED590498')[0]
characters, numbers
#('FED', '590498')

Or even:

ids = ['ICIC889150', 'FED889150', 'MFL541606']
[re.search(r'([A-Z]{3,4})(\d+)', id).groups() for id in ids]
#[('ICIC', '889150'), ('FED', '889150'), ('MFL', '541606')]

As suggested by Martjin, search is the preferred way.

Answer 2

If the number of letters is variable, it's easiest to use a regular expression:

import re

characters, numbers = re.search(r'([A-Z]+)(\d+)', inputstring).groups()

This assumes that:

• The letters are uppercase ASCII
• There is at least 1 character, and 1 digit in each input string.

You can lock the pattern down further by using {3, 4} instead of + to limit repetition to just 3 or 4 instead of at least 1, etc.

Demo:

>>> import re
>>> inputstring = 'FED590498'
>>> characters, numbers = re.search(r'([A-Z]+)(\d+)', inputstring).groups()
>>> characters
'FED'
>>> numbers
'590498'