CODEWITHSUNDEEP
pythonpython-2.7
Chris J. Vargo
Chris J. Vargo

Reputation: 2436

Search for Dictionary Values in String

I have a dictionary and I want to see if astring contains any of the keys in the dictionary. If so, I want to replace it with the corresponding value in the dictionary.

states = {
     'Alaska' : 'AK',
     'Alabama' : 'AL',}
astring = "I love Alaska"

for state in states:
     if state in astring:
        print astring.replace(state, state.value())

This doesn't work of course because in iterating through the keys with the For loop, python is treating state as a string. As a result, there is no value() for state.

Upvotes: 1

Views: 84

Answers (4)

bufh
bufh

Reputation: 3410

Another way, slower but shorter:

import re

states = {
    'Alaska' : 'AK',
    'Alabama' : 'AL',
}

# build a regexp
pattern = re.compile(
    r'\b(%s)\b' % '|'.join(re.escape(needle) for needle in states)
)

astring = "I love Alaska"

print pattern.sub(lambda match: states.get(match.group()) or match.group(), astring)

Upvotes: 0

dermen
dermen

Reputation: 5362

Consider the case where astring= 'I love Alaska and Alabama'. then use

new_string = ' '.join([states[word] if word in states else word for word in astring.split()])
#'I love AK and AL'

Upvotes: 0

Morgan Thrapp
Morgan Thrapp

Reputation: 9986

You can just use the key from the for loop as the key to your states dict. This should work for you.

states = {
     'Alaska' : 'AK',
     'Alabama' : 'AL',}
astring = "I love Alaska"

for state in states:
     if state in astring:
        print astring.replace(state, states[state])

It's probably less efficient, but you could also do this

states = {
     'Alaska' : 'AK',
     'Alabama' : 'AL',}
astring = "I love Alaska"

for state, abbreviation in states.items():
     if state in astring:
        print astring.replace(state, abbreviation)

Upvotes: 3

dsh
dsh

Reputation: 12213

Your variable state is a string, and has no method .value(). I recommend iterating through the entries when you want to use both the key and the value:

for state, abbr in states.items():
    if state in astring:
       print astring.replace(state, abbr)

Upvotes: 3

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