Splitting strings in Python, but with spaces in substrings

Question

I have a string that I want to split into a list of certain types. For example, I want to split Starter Main Course Dessert to [Starter, Main Course, Dessert]

I cannot use split() because it will split up the Main Course type. How can I do the splitting? Is regex needed?

You would have to know either the words or partial words, or the layout in order to do this.. — TheLazyScripter
– TheLazyScripter, Commented Feb 12, 2017 at 17:25
What matches Main Course but not Starter Main or Course Dessert (from Starter Main Course Dessert)? This is impossible, AFAIK. — user6516765
– user6516765, Commented Feb 12, 2017 at 17:26
Yes I know the words that I want to split into, but I am not sure how to do it from the original string — JJJ
– JJJ, Commented Feb 12, 2017 at 17:30
Maybe what you need requires 2-gram(bigram). In Python you can use nltk. This may be helpful. And this and this too. — Sangbok Lee
– Sangbok Lee, Commented Feb 12, 2017 at 17:31
So you know the all the certain words that you want to keep together, right? — Usmiech
– Usmiech, Commented Feb 12, 2017 at 17:48

Eric Duminil · Accepted Answer · 2017-02-12 23:14:27Z

3

If you have a list of acceptable words, you could use a regex union :

import re

acceptable_words = ['Starter', 'Main Course', 'Dessert', 'Coffee', 'Aperitif']
pattern = re.compile("("+"|".join(acceptable_words)+")", re.IGNORECASE)
# "(Starter|Main Course|Dessert|Coffee|Aperitif)"

menu = "Starter Main Course NotInTheList dessert"
print pattern.findall(menu)
# ['Starter', 'Main Course', 'dessert']

If you just want to specify which special substrings should be matched, you could use :

acceptable_words = ['Main Course', '\w+']

edited Feb 12, 2017 at 23:14

answered Feb 12, 2017 at 17:52

Eric Duminil

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Comments

Sangbok Lee · Accepted Answer · 2017-02-12 18:18:40Z

0

I think it's more practical to specify 'special' two-words tokens only.

special_words = ['Main Course', 'Something Special']
sentence = 'Starter Main Course Dessert Something Special Date'

words = sentence.split(' ')
for i in range(len(words) - 1):
    try:
        idx = special_words.index(str(words[i]) + ' ' + words[i+1])
        words[i] = special_words[idx]
        words[i+1] = None
    except ValueError:
        pass

words = list(filter(lambda x: x is not None, words))
print(words)

answered Feb 12, 2017 at 18:18

Sangbok Lee

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