re beginner

[faulkner]

you could write a function which takes a match object and modifies d,
pass the function to re.sub, and ignore what re.sub returns.

# untested code
d = {}
def record(match):
    s = match.string[match.start() : match.end()]
    i = s.index('\t')
    print s, i    # debugging
    d[s[:i]] = int(s[i+1:])
    return ''
re.sub('\w+\t\d+\t', record, stuff)
# end code

it may be a bit faster, but it's very roundabout and difficult to
debug.

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!