I've kind of got this working but my code is very ugly. I'm sure it's regular expression I need to achieve this more but not very familiar with use regex, particularly retaining part of the string that is being searched/matched for.
Notes and code below to demonstrate what I am trying to achieve. Any help, much appreciated. Examples=["Test1A", "Test2A: Test2B", "Test3A: Test3B -:- Test3C", ""] # Out1 is just itself unless if it is empty # Out2 is everything left of ":" (including ":" i.e. part A) and right of "-:-" (excluding "-:-" i.e. part C) # If text doesn't contain "-:-" then return text itself as it is # Out3 is everything right of "-:-" (excluding "-:-" i.e. part C) # If text doesn't contain "-:-" but does contains ":" then return part B only # If it doesn't contain ":" then return itself (unless if it empty then "None") for i,s in enumerate(Examples,start=1): Out1=s if len(s)>0 else "Empty" Out2=s[:s.find(":")+3] + s[s.find("-:-")+5:] if s.find("-:-")>0 else s.strip() if len(s) else "Empty" Out3=s[s.find("-:-")+4:] if s.find("-:-")>0 else s[s.find(":")+1:].strip() if s.find(":")>0 and len(s)!=s.find(":")+1 else s if len(s) else "Empty" print "Item%(i)s <%(s)s> Out1 = %(Out1)s" % locals() print "Item%(i)s <%(s)s> Out2 = %(Out2)s" % locals() print "Item%(i)s <%(s)s> Out3 = %(Out3)s" % locals() Output: Item1 <Test1A> Out1 = Test1A Item1 <Test1A> Out2 = Test1A Item1 <Test1A> Out3 = Test1A Item2 <Test2A: Test2B> Out1 = Test2A: Test2B Item2 <Test2A: Test2B> Out2 = Test2A: Test2B Item2 <Test2A: Test2B> Out3 = Test2B #INCORRECT - Should be "Test2A: Test2B" Item3 <Test3A: Test3B -:- Test3C> Out1 = Test3A: Test3B -:- Test3C Item3 <Test3A: Test3B -:- Test3C> Out2 = Test3A: Test3C Item3 <Test3A: Test3B -:- Test3C> Out3 = Test3C Item4 <> Out1 = Empty Item4 <> Out2 = Empty Item4 <> Out3 = Empty
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