Help with regex search-and-replace (Perl to Python)

[Steve Holden]

Tim Chase wrote:
> Schif Schaf wrote:
>> On Feb 7, 12:19 am, "Alf P. Steinbach" <al... at start.no> wrote:
>>> I haven't used regexps in Python before, but what I did was (1) look
>>> in the
>>> documentation,
> [snip]
>>> <code>
>>> import re
>>>
>>> text = (
>>>      "Lorem [ipsum] dolor sit amet, consectetur",
>>>      "adipisicing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor",
>>>      "incididunt ut [labore] et [dolore] magna aliqua."
>>>      )
>>>
>>> withbracks = re.compile( r'\[(.+?)\]' )
>>> for line in text:
>>>      print( re.sub( withbracks, r'{\1}', line) )
>>> </code>
>>
>> Seems like there's magic happening here. There's the `withbracks`
>> regex that applies itself to `line`. But then when `re.sub()` does the
>> replacement operation, it appears to consult the `withbracks` regex on
>> the most recent match it just had.
> 
> I suspect Alf's rustiness with regexps caused him to miss the simpler
> rendition of
> 
>   print withbacks.sub(r'{\1}', line)
> 
> And to answer those who are reaching for other non-regex (whether string
> translations or .replace(), or pyparsing) solutions, it depends on what
> you want to happen in pathological cases like
> 
>   s = """Dangling closing]
>      with properly [[nested]] and
>      complex [properly [nested] text]
>      and [improperly [nested] text
>      and with some text [straddling
>      lines] and with
>      dangling opening [brackets
>      """
> where you'll begin to see the differences.
> 
Really? Under what circumstances does a simple one-for-one character
replacement operation fail?

regards
 Steve
-- 
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