CODEWITHSUNDEEP
pythonpython-3.xlistsplit
jef
jef

Reputation: 4083

How to split a list-of-strings into sublists-of-strings by a specific string element

I have a word list like below. I want to split the list by .. Is there any better or useful code in Python 3?

a = ['this', 'is', 'a', 'cat', '.', 'hello', '.', 'she', 'is', 'nice', '.']
result = []
tmp = []
for elm in a:
    if elm is not '.':
        tmp.append(elm)
    else:
        result.append(tmp)
        tmp = []
print(result)
# result: [['this', 'is', 'a', 'cat'], ['hello'], ['she', 'is', 'nice']]

Update

Add test cases to handle it correctly.

a = ['this', 'is', 'a', 'cat', '.', 'hello', '.', 'she', 'is', 'nice', '.']
b = ['this', 'is', 'a', 'cat', '.', 'hello', '.', 'she', 'is', 'nice', '.', 'yes']
c = ['.', 'this', 'is', 'a', 'cat', '.', 'hello', '.', 'she', 'is', 'nice', '.', 'yes']
def split_list(list_data, split_word='.'):
    result = []
    sub_data = []
    for elm in list_data:
        if elm is not split_word:
            sub_data.append(elm)
        else:
            if len(sub_data) != 0:
                result.append(sub_data)
            sub_data = []
    if len(sub_data) != 0:
        result.append(sub_data)
    return result

print(split_list(a)) # [['this', 'is', 'a', 'cat'], ['hello'], ['she', 'is', 'nice']]
print(split_list(b)) # [['this', 'is', 'a', 'cat'], ['hello'], ['she', 'is', 'nice'], ['yes']]
print(split_list(c)) # [['this', 'is', 'a', 'cat'], ['hello'], ['she', 'is', 'nice'], ['yes']]

Upvotes: 27

Views: 10061

Answers (6)

Transhuman
Transhuman

Reputation: 3547

Using itertools.groupby:

from itertools import groupby
a = ['this', 'is', 'a', 'cat', '.', 'hello', '.', 'she', 'is', 'nice', '.']
result = [
    list(g)
    for k,g in groupby(a,lambda x:x=='.')
    if not k
]
print (result)
#[['this', 'is', 'a', 'cat'], ['hello'], ['she', 'is', 'nice']]

Upvotes: 27

Scott Boston
Scott Boston

Reputation: 153460

You can do this all with a "one-liner" using list comprehension and string functions join, split, strip, and no additional libraries. 

a = ['this', 'is', 'a', 'cat', '.', 'hello', '.', 'she', 'is', 'nice', '.']
b = ['this', 'is', 'a', 'cat', '.', 'hello', '.', 'she', 'is', 'nice', '.', 'yes']
c = ['.', 'this', 'is', 'a', 'cat', '.', 'hello', '.', 'she', 'is', 'nice', '.', 'yes']



In [5]: [i.strip().split(' ') for i in ' '.join(a).split('.') if len(i) > 0 ]
Out[5]: [['this', 'is', 'a', 'cat'], ['hello'], ['she', 'is', 'nice']]

In [8]: [i.strip().split(' ') for i in ' '.join(b).split('.') if len(i) > 0 ]
Out[8]: [['this', 'is', 'a', 'cat'], ['hello'], ['she', 'is', 'nice'], ['yes']]

In [9]: In [8]: [i.strip().split(' ') for i in ' '.join(c).split('.') if len(i) > 0 ]
Out[9]: [['this', 'is', 'a', 'cat'], ['hello'], ['she', 'is', 'nice'], ['yes']]

@Craig has a simpler update:

[s.split() for s in ' '.join(a).split('.') if s]

Upvotes: 13

MSeifert
MSeifert

Reputation: 152647

This answer requires installing a 3rd party library: iteration_utilities1. The included split function makes solving this task straightforward:

>>> from iteration_utilities import split
>>> a = ['this', 'is', 'a', 'cat', '.', 'hello', '.', 'she', 'is', 'nice', '.']
>>> list(filter(None, split(a, '.', eq=True)))
[['this', 'is', 'a', 'cat'], ['hello'], ['she', 'is', 'nice']]

Instead of using the eq parameter you can also define a custom function where to split:

>>> list(filter(None, split(a, lambda x: x=='.')))
[['this', 'is', 'a', 'cat'], ['hello'], ['she', 'is', 'nice']]

In case you want to keep the '.'s you could also use the keep_before argument:

>>> list(filter(None, split(a, '.', eq=True, keep_before=True)))
[['this', 'is', 'a', 'cat', '.'], ['hello', '.'], ['she', 'is', 'nice', '.']]

Note that the library just makes it easier - it's easily possible (see the other answers) to accomplish this task without installing an additional library.

The filter can be removed if you don't expect '.' to appear at the beginning or end of your to-be-split list.

1 I'm the author of that library. It's available via pip or the conda-forge channel with conda.

Upvotes: 1

RoadRunner
RoadRunner

Reputation: 26315

I couldn't help myself, just wanted to have fun with this great question:

import itertools

a = ['this', 'is', 'a', 'cat', '.', 'hello', '.', 'she', 'is', 'nice', '.']
b = ['this', 'is', 'a', 'cat', '.', 'hello', '.', 'she', 'is', 'nice', '.', 'yes']
c = ['.', 'this', 'is', 'a', 'cat', '.', 'hello', '.', 'she', 'is', 'nice', '.', 'yes']

def split_dots(lst):

    dots = [0] + [i+1 for i, e in enumerate(lst) if e == '.']

    result = [list(itertools.takewhile(lambda x : x != '.', lst[dot:])) for dot in dots]

    return list(filter(lambda x : x, result))

print(split_dots(a)) # [['this', 'is', 'a', 'cat'], ['hello'], ['she', 'is', 'nice']]
print(split_dots(b)) # [['this', 'is', 'a', 'cat'], ['hello'], ['she', 'is', 'nice'], ['yes']]
print(split_dots(c)) # [['this', 'is', 'a', 'cat'], ['hello'], ['she', 'is', 'nice'], ['yes']]

Upvotes: 1

Óscar López
Óscar López

Reputation: 236004

Here's another way using only standard list operations (with no dependencies on other libraries!). First we find the split points and then we create sublists around them; notice that the first element is treated as a special case:

a = ['this', 'is', 'a', 'cat', '.', 'hello', '.', 'she', 'is', 'nice', '.']
indexes = [-1] + [i for i, x in enumerate(a) if x == '.']

[a[indexes[i]+1:indexes[i+1]] for i in range(len(indexes)-1)]
=> [['this', 'is', 'a', 'cat'], ['hello'], ['she', 'is', 'nice']]

Upvotes: 7

Ajax1234
Ajax1234

Reputation: 71451

You can reconstruct the string using ' '.join and use regex:

import re
a = ['this', 'is', 'a', 'cat', '.', 'hello', '.', 'she', 'is', 'nice', '.']
new_s = [b for b in [re.split('\s', i) for i in re.split('\s*\.\s*', ' '.join(a))] if all(b)]

Output:

[['this', 'is', 'a', 'cat'], ['hello'], ['she', 'is', 'nice']]

Upvotes: 3

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