re beginner

[SuperHik]

WOW!
Thanks for all the answers, even those not related to regular 
expressions tought me some stuff I wasn't aware of.
I appreciate it very much.

SuperHik wrote:
> hi all,
> 
> I'm trying to understand regex for the first time, and it would be very 
> helpful to get an example. I have an old(er) script with the following 
> task - takes a string I copy-pasted and wich always has the same format:
> 
>  >>> print stuff
> Yellow hat    2    Blue shirt    1
> White socks    4    Green pants    1
> Blue bag    4    Nice perfume    3
> Wrist watch    7    Mobile phone    4
> Wireless cord!    2    Building tools    3
> One for the money    7    Two for the show    4
> 
>  >>> stuff
> 'Yellow hat\t2\tBlue shirt\t1\nWhite socks\t4\tGreen pants\t1\nBlue 
> bag\t4\tNice perfume\t3\nWrist watch\t7\tMobile phone\t4\nWireless 
> cord!\t2\tBuilding tools\t3\nOne for the money\t7\tTwo for the show\t4'
> 
> I want to put items from stuff into a dict like this:
>  >>> print mydict
> {'Wireless cord!': 2, 'Green pants': 1, 'Blue shirt': 1, 'White socks': 
> 4, 'Mobile phone': 4, 'Two for the show': 4, 'One for the money': 7, 
> 'Blue bag': 4, 'Wrist watch': 7, 'Nice perfume': 3, 'Yellow hat': 2, 
> 'Building tools': 3}
> 
> Here's how I did it:
>  >>> def putindict(items):
> ...     items = items.replace('\n', '\t')
> ...     items = items.split('\t')
> ...     d = {}
> ...     for x in xrange( len(items) ):
> ...         if not items[x].isdigit(): d[items[x]] = int(items[x+1])
> ...     return d
>  >>>
>  >>> mydict = putindict(stuff)
> 
> 
> I was wondering is there a better way to do it using re module?
> perheps even avoiding this for loop?
> 
> thanks!