You might want to be a little more explicit. Do you know that this = "this" that = "that"
or do you mean this = `the part before the \D*` that = `the part after the \D*` If you mean the former, then the previously proposed py> import re py> line = 'see this man with that woman holding this dog and that cat' py> r = re.compile(r'this(\D*?)that') py> r.sub(r'that\1this',line) will do fine. If you mean the latter, then you should describe the type of pattern that this and that belong to. Also, consider how greedy your \D* is: py> line = 'this abcd this efgh that' py> r.sub(r'that\1this',line) 'that abcd this efgh this' Would this be the result you expect? James On Friday 01 July 2005 09:39 am, Vibha Tripathi wrote: > It'd be silly to write the code for it if it already > exists somewhere in the Python re or sre library > module: > > I need to find and replace all strings in a text file > from a certain pattern to another pattern. > > so for example if I see 'this(\D*)that' anywhere in > the file then I'd like to make is 'that(\D*)this' > where the middle part of the strings remains > unmodified. > > Any suggestions? > > Peace. > Vibha > > PS. How do I avoid getting my email ID web-published > for this mailing list.? > > > > ____________________________________________________ > Yahoo! Sports > Rekindle the Rivalries. Sign up for Fantasy Football > http://football.fantasysports.yahoo.com -- James Stroud UCLA-DOE Institute for Genomics and Proteomics Box 951570 Los Angeles, CA 90095 http://www.jamesstroud.com/ -- http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list
