On 2014-02-27 20:07, Jignesh Sutar wrote: > 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.
While I suppose this could be done with regular expressions, in this case it seems like a bit of overkill. Just to show that it can be done, I give you this monstrosity: >>> examples = ["Test1A", ... "Test2A: Test2B", ... "Test3A: Test3B -:- Test3C", ... ""] >>> import re >>> r = re.compile(r"^([^:]*)(?::((?:(?!-:-).)*)(?:-:-(.*))?)?") >>> [r.match(s).groups() for s in examples] [('Test1A', None, None), ('Test2A', ' Test2B', None), ('Test3A', ' Test3B ', ' Test3C'), ('', None, None)] You'd still have to strip those values that are strings, but that gets you the core of what you're seeking. You do omit several edge cases: to_test = [ "Test4A -:- Test4D", # no ":" "Test4A : Test4B : Test4C -:- Test4D", # 2x ":" "Test4A : Test4B -:- Test4C -:- Test4D", # 2x "-:-" ] what should Out2 and Out3 be in those particular instances? > 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") I believe you want something like examples = [ ("", (None, None, None)), ("Test1A", ("Test1A", None, None)), ("Test2A: Test2B", ("Test2A", "Test2B", None)), ("Test3A: Test3B -:- Test3C", ("Test3A", "Test3B", "Test3C")), # three test-cases with no provided expectations ("Test4A -:- Test4B", None), ("Test5A : Test5B : Test5C -:- Test5D", None), ("Test6A : Test6B -:- Test6C -:- Test6D", None), ] def clean(t): return [ s.strip() if s is not None else s for s in t ] for s, expected in examples: out1 = out2 = out3 = None if ":" in s: if "-:-" in s: left, _, out3 = clean(s.partition("-:-")) if ":" in left: out1, _, out2 = clean(left.partition(":")) else: out1 = left else: out1, _, out2 = clean(s.partition(":")) else: if s: out1 = s result = (out1, out2, out3) if expected is not None: if result != expected: print("FAIL: %r got %r, not %r" % (s, result, expected)) else: print("PASS: %r got %r" % (s, result)) else: print("UNKN: %r got %r" % (s, result)) which gives me PASS: '' got (None, None, None) PASS: 'Test1A' got ('Test1A', None, None) PASS: 'Test2A: Test2B' got ('Test2A', 'Test2B', None) PASS: 'Test3A: Test3B -:- Test3C' got ('Test3A', 'Test3B', 'Test3C') UNKN: 'Test4A -:- Test4B' got ('Test4A', None, 'Test4B') UNKN: 'Test5A : Test5B : Test5C -:- Test5D' got ('Test5A', 'Test5B : Test5C', 'Test5D') UNKN: 'Test6A : Test6B -:- Test6C -:- Test6D' got ('Test6A', 'Test6B', 'Test6C -:- Test6D') I find that a good bit more readable than the atrocity of that regular expression. -tkc -- https://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list