[Tutor] regexp help needed

[Kent Johnson]

János Juhász wrote:
> Dear All,
> 
> I have a problem about the EDI invoices created by our erp system.
> I have to make a small correction on them, just before sending them by 
> ftp.
> 
> The problem is that, the big numbers are printed with thousand separator.
> 
> U:\ediout\INVOIC\Backup>grep \...., *.doc
> File 063091.doc:
>      MOALIN    203       79.524,480 DKK4
>      PRI       YYY   1.095,130   1        PC
>      MOATOT    79  594.629,400      DKK4
> File 063092.doc:
>      MOALIN    203       47.281,680 DKK4
>      MOATOT    86   56.738,016      DKK4
>      MOATOT    79   47.281,680      DKK4
> 
> I have to remove the thousand separator by moving the numbers before it to 
> right.
> So the number and char groups has to be left in their original position.
> 
> I have to make this kind of changes on the problematic lines:
>      MOATOT    79   47.281,680      DKK4
>      MOATOT    79    47281,680      DKK4
> 
> I have no idea how to make it :(

Break it up into smaller problems:
for each line in the data:
   break the line up into fields
   fix the field containing the amount
   rebuild the line

You don't really have to make a regex for the whole line. re.split() is 
useful for splitting the line and preserving the whitespace so you can 
rebuild the line with the same format.

Kent