CODEWITHSUNDEEP
pythonpython-3.xstringdictionary
user10844642
user10844642

Reputation:

How can I match similar strings?

I am working on a program and stuck on one part. My program accepts a user input of a string which also contains the '*' symbol. What I need to do is match this string with any of the resembling dictionary keys.

For Example:

dict = {'Mazda': [[2, 'brown', '2006']], 'Jaguar': [[1, 'black', '2020']],
 'Lamborghini': [[0, 'red', '2009']], 'Camaro SS': [[1, ''Matte Black', '1969']], 
'Dodge': [[1, 'grey', '2012']], "twin turbo'camaro": [[2, 'lime green', '2016']] }

If the user enters:

'*amaro'

or

'Cam*ro'

or 

'Camar*'

It will find all instances where there is 'Camaro' in the keys of the dictionary.

code so far...

name = input('Enter * for the missing letter ')
name = name.replace('*', '') # I was thinking if I took the hash out I can sort through they keys and find the most similar instances 
if name in dict.keys():
   nName = dict.get(name)

If the code worked the only output I need is proof of the two keys being found from the users input:

Camaro SS

twin turbo'camaro

Upvotes: 0

Views: 58

Answers (2)

Austin
Austin

Reputation: 26039

Slightly modifying @mrzo's answer, you want to use re.search with case insensitive search (re.search instead of re.match because we are not looking for a complete key match):

name = input('Enter * for the missing letter ')

regex_name = name.replace('*', '.')

for car in cars:
    if re.search(regex_name, car, re.IGNORECASE):
        print(name, "matches", car)

where cars is your dictionary. Do not name as dict.

Using wildcard . is equivalent to any character in regex.

Upvotes: 1

mrzo
mrzo

Reputation: 2135

You can use regular expressions. . stands for a wildcard sign here

import re

cars = {
    'Mazda': [[2, 'brown', '2006']], 
    'Jaguar': [[1, 'black', '2020']],
    'Lamborghini': [[0, 'red', '2009']], 
    'Camaro SS': [[1, 'Matte Black', '1969']], 
    'Dodge': [[1, 'grey', '2012']], 
    "twin turbo'camaro": [[2, 'lime green', '2016']] 
}

name = input('Enter * for the missing letter ')

regex_name = name.replace('*', '.')

for car in cars:
    if re.match(regex_name, car):
        print(name, "matches", car)

Upvotes: 0

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