Replace with upper(string)

[WJSwan]

I need to find all strings like this: \nd string \nd*
where string is any alphabetic string, eg. [A-z]+

I then need to replace it by upper(string)

For instance: "Here is a \nd Word \nd* in upper case", must become "Here is a WORD in upper case"

Can this be achieved using regex? If not, how can I achieve it?

[rob101]

If the sequence is always the same, then this may do what you need:

def to_upper(text):
    output = ""
    list_text = text.split("\nd")
    for index, words in enumerate(list_text):
        word = words.lstrip("*")
        if index == 1:
            output += word.upper()
        else:
            output += word.strip()
    return output


txt = "Here is a \nd Word \nd* in upper case"
print(to_upper(txt))
txt = "This is another \nd example \nd*"
print(to_upper(txt))

[deanhystad]

re.sub() can do that.

import re

test_str = r"Here is a \nd Word \nd* in upper case"
pattern = r"(\\nd(.*)\\nd\*)"  # Backslash pattern fun!


def repl_func(match):
    return match.group(2).upper()


print(re.sub(pattern, repl_func, test_str))

Output:
Here is a  WORD  in upper case

The extra spaces are contained in the test_str. Not sure if you want them stripped off or not.

[WJSwan]

Thank you deanhystad,
There is just one small shortcoming (I admit I did not mention it!) in that if the \nd...\nd* string appears more than once, it messes it up:

import re
 
test_str = r"Here is a \nd Word\nd* in upper case and \nd another\nd* "
pattern = r"(\\nd(.*)\\nd\*)"  # Backslash pattern fun!
 
 
def repl_func(match):
    return match.group(2).upper()
 
 
print(re.sub(pattern, repl_func, test_str))

Output: Here is a WORD\ND* IN UPPER CASE AND \ND ANOTHER

Should be: Here is a WORD in upper case and ANOTHER

[deanhystad]

Need to modify the pattern to not be greedy.

https://docs.python.org/3/howto/regex.ht...non-greedy

[perfringo]

This is probably a home assignment. Therefore I assume that understanding of underlying algorithm is expected.

This is basically: "parse every word, mark start of uppercasing words, uppercase words until stop mark is reached". So basic if...elif..else can be used:

text = r"Here is a \nd Word what is\nd* in upper case and \nd another\nd* "

def convert(text, start=False):
    for word in text.split():
        if word == r'\nd':
            start = True
        elif word.endswith(r'\nd*'):
            yield word.removesuffix(r'\nd*').upper()
            start = False
        else:
            if start:
                yield word.upper()
            else:
                yield word

print(' '.join(convert(text)))

-> Here is a WORD WHAT IS in upper case and ANOTHER

I am well aware that this code has gotchas :-) but in learning process it useful to find them yourself.

[WJSwan]

I played around myself and found that this works:

text = r"Here is a \nd Word\nd* that is in upper case and \nd another\nd* one of them"
 
def MakeUpper(text):
    ttxt=""
    while True:
        nd=text.find("\\nd")
        if nd == -1:
           break
        ndstar=text.find("\\nd*")
        text=text[0:nd]+text[nd+3:ndstar].upper().strip()+text[ndstar+4:]
    return text            

upr=MakeUpper(text) 
print(upr)

Output: Here is a WORD that is in upper case and ANOTHER one of them

[WJSwan]

Need to modify the pattern to not be greedy.

https://docs.python.org/3/howto/regex.ht...non-greedy

Thank you for this. It works like a charm