String Transformation in Python

Question

How can I transform the string like this, I need to convert two double quotes to a \".

"Alexandra ""Alex""",Menendez,[email protected],Miami,1
["Alexandra \"Alex\"", "Menendez", "[email protected]", "Miami", "1"]

the return should be a list and that's where I am landing into a problem. This is what I came up with

def parseCsv(sentence):
    result = []
    new_result = []
    sent_1 = list(sentence)
    new_str = ""
    new_w = ""

    for s in sent_1:
        if s != ',':
            new_str += " ".join(s)
        elif new_str:
            result.append(new_str)
            new_str = ""
    result.append(new_str)

    for i, w in enumerate(result):
        if w.startswith("\"") or w.endswith("\""):
            new_w += result[i]
            if new_w.startswith("\"") and new_w.endswith("\""):
                x = new_w.replace('""', r'\"')
                new_result.append(x)
                new_w = ""
        else:
            new_result.append(w)
    return new_result

What I get back instead is

['"Alexandra \\"Alex\\""', 'Menendez', '[email protected]', 'Miami', '1']

by the way you can use Python's string.split(',') to form a list of words separated by commas — chowsai
– chowsai, Commented Sep 6, 2017 at 5:08

Aran-Fey · Accepted Answer · 2017-09-06 05:08:42Z

4

You don't have to do anything. The csv module will load your data correctly:

import csv
from io import StringIO

infile = StringIO('"Alexandra ""Alex""",Menendez,[email protected],Miami,1')
reader = csv.reader(infile)
for row in reader:
    print(row)

# output:
# ['Alexandra "Alex"', 'Menendez', '[email protected]', 'Miami', '1']

answered Sep 6, 2017 at 5:08

Aran-Fey

44k13 gold badges113 silver badges161 bronze badges

Sign up to request clarification or add additional context in comments.

7 Comments

Arman Over a year ago

Thanks but I would want to do it without csv library.

death and gravity Over a year ago

@Arman Why don't you want to use the cvs module? With this you can then easily add each row to a list or dict in the for loop.What is your end goal for this data?

Arman Over a year ago

May be I didn't express what my end goal is! I could have some this like SELECT * FROM table WHERE name LIKE "Alex;" The need here is I need to get the double quotes too and if there are two double quotes I need to escape it with a \". I would want to do it without a CSV library. Also this is what i want ["Alexandra \"Alex\"", "Menendez", "[email protected]", "Miami", "1"] it's different from what you get when you use csv.

Aran-Fey Over a year ago

@Arman What you have there is clearly csv data, so you should use the csv module to parse it. Then if your database module forces you to manually escape anything, you should find a different, more secure database module that escapes stuff automatically.

Arman Over a year ago

Well, let's not get to the database module even. If you have any recommendation on how to parse the string to what I need, it would be helpful.

|

Anonta · Accepted Answer · 2017-09-06 05:08:35Z

0

Say, after converting your sentence into list and iterating over every elements, do the following regsub

Consider 'a' is an element from your list

a= "\"Alexadra \"\"Alex\"\"\""

print(a)

y=re.sub('\"{2}', '\\\"', a)

y will replace your double quotes with \" i.e a slash with single quote

If only single quote is required try

z=re.sub('\"{2}', '\"', a)

edited Sep 6, 2017 at 5:08

Anonta

2,5402 gold badges17 silver badges25 bronze badges

answered Sep 6, 2017 at 5:04

Deepaklal

1194 bronze badges

1 Comment

Mark Tolonen Over a year ago

Or use the csv module.

Collectives™ on Stack Overflow

String Transformation in Python

2 Answers 2

7 Comments

1 Comment

Your Answer

Hot Network Questions

Collectives™ on Stack Overflow

2 Answers 2

7 Comments

1 Comment

Your Answer

Sign up or log in

Post as a guest

Related