On Jul 31, 3:56 pm, Mensanator <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> On Jul 31, 3:07 pm, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
>
>
>
>
>
> > I am using regular expressions to search a string (always full
> > sentences, maybe more than one sentence) for common abbreviations and
> > remove the periods. I need to break the string into different
> > sentences but split('.') doesn't solve the whole problem because of
> > possible periods in the middle of a sentence.
>
> > So I have...
>
> > ----------------
>
> > import re
>
> > middle_abbr = re.compile('[A-Za-z0-9]\.[A-Za-z0-9]\.')
>
> > # this will find abbreviations like e.g. or i.e. in the middle of a
> > sentence.
> > # then I want to remove the periods.
>
> > ----------------
>
> > I want to keep the ie or eg but just take out the periods. Any
> > ideas? Of course newString = middle_abbr.sub('',txt) where txt is the
> > string will take out the entire abbreviation with the alphanumeric
> > characters included.
> >>> middle_abbr = re.compile('[A-Za-z0-9]\.[A-Za-z0-9]\.')
> >>> s = 'A test, i.e., an example.'
> >>> a = middle_abbr.search(s) # find the abbreviation
> >>> b = re.compile('\.') # period pattern
> >>> c = b.sub('',a.group(0)) # remove periods from abbreviation
> >>> d = middle_abbr.sub(c,s) # substitute new abbr for old
> >>> d
>
> 'A test, ie, an example.'
A more versatile version:
import re
middle_abbr = re.compile('[A-Za-z0-9]\.[A-Za-z0-9]\.')
s = 'A test, i.e., an example.'
a = middle_abbr.search(s) # find the abbreviation
b = re.compile('\.') # period pattern
c = b.sub('',a.group(0)) # remove periods from abbreviation
d = middle_abbr.sub(c,s) # substitute new abbr for old
print d
print
print
s = """A test, i.e., an example.
Yet another test, i.e., example with 2 abbr."""
a = middle_abbr.search(s) # find the abbreviation
c = b.sub('',a.group(0)) # remove periods from abbreviation
d = middle_abbr.sub(c,s) # substitute new abbr for old
print d
print
print
s = """A test, i.e., an example.
Yet another test, i.e., example with 2 abbr.
A multi-test, e.g., one with different abbr."""
done = False
while not done:
a = middle_abbr.search(s) # find the abbreviation
if a:
c = b.sub('',a.group(0)) # remove periods from abbreviation
s = middle_abbr.sub(c,s,1) # substitute new abbr for old ONCE
else: # repeat until all removed
done = True
print s
## A test, ie, an example.
##
##
## A test, ie, an example.
## Yet another test, ie, example with 2 abbr.'
##
##
## A test, ie, an example.
## Yet another test, ie, example with 2 abbr.
## A multi-test, eg, one with different abbr.
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