replace a list of words with regex

user_15336413 0
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I have a list of words list_words =["cat","dog","animals"]

And i have a text = "I have a lot of animals a cat and a dog"

I want a regex code that is able to add a comma at the end of every word before any word in the list given.

I want my text to be like that: text = "I have a lot of, animals a, cat and a, dog"

My code so far:

import re
list_words = ["cat", "dog", "animals","adam"]
text = "I have a lot of animals,       cat and a     dog"

for word in list_words:
    if word in text:
        word = re.search(r" (\s*{})".format(word), text).group(1)
        text = text.replace(f" {word}", f", {word}")
print(text)

But i have 2 issues here:

1: if i have a text like this : text= I have a lot of animals cat and a dogy

it turns it into : text= I have a lot of, animals, cat and a, dogy

which is not the result wanted, i wanted to replace only the word itself not with

addition like dogy

2: if i have a text like this: text= I have a lot of animals, cat and a dogy

it still add another comma which is not what i want

python regex
3 Answers

All words get a comma:

import re

list_words = ["cat", "dog", "animals"]
text = "I have a lot of animals a cat and a dog"

for word in list_words:
    word = re.search(r" (\s*{}) ".format(word), text)
    text = text.replace(f" {word}", f", {word}")
user_141991540

You can use

,*(\s*\b(?:cat|dog|animals|adam))\b

See the regex demo. Details:

  • ,* - zero or more commas
  • (\s*\b(?:cat|dog|animals|adam)) - Group 1:
    • \s* - zero or more whitespaces
    • \b - a word boundary
    • (?:cat|dog|animals|adam) - one of the words
  • \b - word boundary

See the Python demo:

import re
list_words = ["cat", "dog", "animals", "adam"]
text = "I have a lot of animals,       cat and a     dog"
pattern = r",*(\s*\b(?:{}))\b".format("|".join(list_words))
print( re.sub(pattern, r",\1", text) )
# => I have a lot of, animals,       cat and a,     dog
user_38329700

Go with a simpler method.

list_words =["cat","dog","animals"]
text = "I have a lot of animals a cat and a dog"
test_list_words=[]
for new in text.split(" "):
        if new in list_words:
                new=new+","
                test_list_words.append(new)
        else:
                test_list_words.append(new)
print(' '.join(test_list_words))
Admin1
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