How to get the correct result when I use re.compile(pattern), if the pattern contains some special characters, like, (),?

Question

I am trying to replace a string in a file using python re lib. But I failed on replacing some texts with some special characters, like, (), ?, etc. Can anyone help me look at this issue?

I attached my code in here.:

filterText = '\"' + sheet.row_values(row)[1] + '\"';
print "filterText = %s"%filterText;
pattern = re.compile(filterText, re.S);
replacedText = '\"' + sheet.row_values(row)[2] + '\"';
print "replacedText = %s"%replacedText;

if filterText == "English (UK)":
    print "replacedText = %s"%replacedText;

fileContent = re.sub(pattern, replacedText, fileContent);

And you'll need to show examples of the contents. Are you sure you need regexes here? — Daniel Roseman, Nov 02 '15 at 07:33
Thanks for your quick response. Acturally, I am trying to convert a file with English words to another language. I got an excel from customer which contains English text and Vietnamese together. — ping, Nov 02 '15 at 07:39

score 1 · Accepted Answer · answered Nov 02 '15 at 07:47

1

re.escape(string)

Return string with all non-alphanumerics backslashed; this is useful if you want to match an arbitrary literal string that may have regular expression metacharacters in it.

Use re.escape to convert any string as a literal pattern.

filterText = '\"' + re.escape(sheet.row_values(row)[1]) + '\"'

answered Nov 02 '15 at 07:47

Mariano

6,423
4
31
47

Thanks for your suggestion. It works totally. :) Thank you very much. – ping Nov 03 '15 at 09:03

How to get the correct result when I use re.compile(pattern), if the pattern contains some special characters, like, (),?

1 Answers1