CODEWITHSUNDEEP
pythonregexstringescaping
Arman
Arman

Reputation: 194

String Transformation in Python

How can I transform the string like this, I need to convert two double quotes to a \". 

"Alexandra ""Alex""",Menendez,[email protected],Miami,1
["Alexandra \"Alex\"", "Menendez", "[email protected]", "Miami", "1"]

the return should be a list and that's where I am landing into a problem. This is what I came up with

def parseCsv(sentence):
    result = []
    new_result = []
    sent_1 = list(sentence)
    new_str = ""
    new_w = ""

    for s in sent_1:
        if s != ',':
            new_str += " ".join(s)
        elif new_str:
            result.append(new_str)
            new_str = ""
    result.append(new_str)

    for i, w in enumerate(result):
        if w.startswith("\"") or w.endswith("\""):
            new_w += result[i]
            if new_w.startswith("\"") and new_w.endswith("\""):
                x = new_w.replace('""', r'\"')
                new_result.append(x)
                new_w = ""
        else:
            new_result.append(w)
    return new_result

What I get back instead is

['"Alexandra \\"Alex\\""', 'Menendez', '[email protected]', 'Miami', '1']

Upvotes: 0

Views: 1928

Answers (2)

Aran-Fey
Aran-Fey

Reputation: 43196

You don't have to do anything. The csv module will load your data correctly:

import csv
from io import StringIO

infile = StringIO('"Alexandra ""Alex""",Menendez,[email protected],Miami,1')
reader = csv.reader(infile)
for row in reader:
    print(row)

# output:
# ['Alexandra "Alex"', 'Menendez', '[email protected]', 'Miami', '1']

Upvotes: 4

Deepaklal
Deepaklal

Reputation: 119

Say, after converting your sentence into list and iterating over every elements, do the following regsub

Consider 'a' is an element from your list

a= "\"Alexadra \"\"Alex\"\"\""

print(a)

y=re.sub('\"{2}', '\\\"', a)

y will replace your double quotes with \" i.e a slash with single quote

If only single quote is required try

z=re.sub('\"{2}', '\"', a)

Upvotes: 0

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