How to transform nested strings in array to separated words?

Question

I'm trying to do a simple array & string transformation with Python yet I'm stuck. I have this array :

data = ['one, two, three',  'apple, pineapple',  'frog, rabbit, dog, cat, horse']

And I would like to arrive to this result :

new_data = ['one', 'two', 'three', 'apple', 'pineapple', 'frog', 'rabbit', 'dog', 'cat', 'horse']

This is what I'm doing but whenever I use

data_to_string = ''.join(data) 
new_data = re.findall(r"[\w']+", data_to_string)

it gives me this :

['one', 'two', 'threeapple', 'pineapplefrog', 'rabbit', 'dog', 'cat', 'horse']

As you can see "threeapple" and "pineapplefrog" aren't separated, how can I avoid this issue ?

Denziloe · Accepted Answer · 2017-03-07 17:21:48Z

2

Look into list comprehensions, they're great.

Here's your answer:

[word for string in data for word in string.split(", ")]

answered Mar 7, 2017 at 17:21

Denziloe

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1 Comment

Horai Nuri Over a year ago

I'll check for list comprehensions then :)

timgeb · Accepted Answer · 2017-03-07 17:21:39Z

2

How about some simple list comprehension and string methods? re is overkill for this.

>>> data = ['one, two, three',  'apple, pineapple',  'frog, rabbit, dog, cat, horse']
>>> [word.strip() for string in data for word in string.split(',')]
['one', 'two', 'three', 'apple', 'pineapple', 'frog', 'rabbit', 'dog', 'cat', 'horse']

answered Mar 7, 2017 at 17:21

timgeb

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Comments

plasmon360 · Accepted Answer · 2017-03-07 17:21:11Z

1

use join and split

','.join(data).split(',')

results in

['one',
 ' two',
 ' three',
 'apple',
 ' pineapple',
 'frog',
 ' rabbit',
 ' dog',
 ' cat',
 ' horse']

answered Mar 7, 2017 at 17:21

plasmon360

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1 Comment

plasmon360 Over a year ago

Other answers are correct as well. but if you have large array like data*10, then you get performance benefits join and split commands. % timeit ','.join(data*10).split(',') 100000 loops, best of 3: 10.3 µs per loop %timeit [word.strip() for string in data*10 for word in string.split(',')] 10000 loops, best of 3: 42.4 µs per loop. not a big deal, but thought to share.

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