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Split string if separator is not in-between two characters

I want to write a script that reads from a csv file and splits each line by comma except any commas in-between two specific characters.
In the below code snippet I would like to split line by commas except the commas in-between two $s.
line = "$abc,def$,$ghi$,$jkl,mno$"
output = line.split(',')
for o in output:
print(o)
How do I write output = line.split(',') so that I get the following terminal output?
~$ python script.py
$abc,def$
$ghi$
$jkl,mno$

You can do this with a regular expression:
In re, the (?<!\$) will match a character not immediately following a $.
Similarly, a (?!\$) will match a character not immediately before a dollar.
The | character cam match multiple options. So to match a character where either side is not a $ you can use:
expression = r"(?<!\$),|,(?!\$)"
Full program:
import re
expression = r"(?<!\$),|,(?!\$)"
print(re.split(expression, "$abc,def$,$ghi$,$jkl,mno$"))

One solution (maybe not the most elegant but it will work) is to replace the string $,$ with something like $,,$ and then split ,,. So something like this
output = line.replace('$,$','$,,$').split(',,')
Using regex like mousetail suggested is the more elegant and robust solution but requires knowing regex (not that anyone KNOWS regex)

Try regular expressions:
import re
line = "$abc,def$,$ghi$,$jkl,mno$"
output = re.findall(r"\$(.*?)\$", line)
for o in output:
print('$'+o+'$')
$abc,def$
$ghi$
$jkl,mno$

First, you can identify a character that is not used in that line:
c = chr(max(map(ord, line)) + 1)
Then, you can proceed as follows:
line.replace('$,$', f'${c}$').split(c)
Here is your example:
>>> line = '$abc,def$,$ghi$,$jkl,mno$'
>>> c = chr(max(map(ord, line)) + 1)
>>> result = line.replace('$,$', f'${c}$').split(c)
>>> print(*result, sep='\n')
$abc,def$
$ghi$
$jkl,mno$

Getting word from string

How can i get word example from such string:
str = "http://test-example:123/wd/hub"
I write something like that
print(str[10:str.rfind(':')])
but it doesn't work right, if string will be like
"http://tests-example:123/wd/hub"

You can use this regex to capture the value preceded by - and followed by : using lookarounds
(?<=-).+(?=:)
Regex Demo
Python code,
import re
str = "http://test-example:123/wd/hub"
print(re.search(r'(?<=-).+(?=:)', str).group())
Outputs,
example
Non-regex way to get the same is using these two splits,
str = "http://test-example:123/wd/hub"
print(str.split(':')[1].split('-')[1])
Prints,
example

You can use following non-regex because you know example is a 7 letter word:
s.split('-')[1][:7]
For any arbitrary word, that would change to:
s.split('-')[1].split(':')[0]

many ways
using splitting:
example_str = str.split('-')[-1].split(':')[0]
This is fragile, and could break if there are more hyphens or colons in the string.
using regex:
import re
pattern = re.compile(r'-(.*):')
example_str = pattern.search(str).group(1)
This still expects a particular format, but is more easily adaptable (if you know how to write regexes).

I am not sure why do you want to get a particular word from a string. I guess you wanted to see if this word is available in given string.
if that is the case, below code can be used.
import re
str1 = "http://tests-example:123/wd/hub"
matched = re.findall('example',str1)

Split on the -, and then on :
s = "http://test-example:123/wd/hub"
print(s.split('-')[1].split(':')[0])
#example

using re
import re
text = "http://test-example:123/wd/hub"
m = re.search('(?<=-).+(?=:)', text)
if m:
print(m.group())

Python strings has built-in function find:
a="http://test-example:123/wd/hub"
b="http://test-exaaaample:123/wd/hub"
print(a.find('example'))
print(b.find('example'))
will return:
12
-1
It is the index of found substring. If it equals to -1, the substring is not found in string. You can also use in keyword:
'example' in 'http://test-example:123/wd/hub'
True

How to convert a multiline string into a list of lines?

In sikuli I've get a multiline string from clipboard like this...
Names = App.getClipboard();
So Name =
#corazona
#Pebleo00
#cofriasd
«paflio
and I have use this regex to delete the first character if it is not in x00-x7f hex range or is not a word, or is a digit
import re
Names = re.sub(r"(?m)^([^\x00-\x7F]+|\W|\d)", "", Names)
So now Names =
corazona
Pebleo00
cofriasd
paflio
But, I am having trouble with the second regex that converts "Names" into the items of a sequence. I would like to convert "Names" into...
'corazona', 'Pebleo00', 'cofriasd', 'paflio'
or
'corazona', 'Pebleo00', 'cofriasd', 'paflio',
So sikuli can then recognize it as a List (I've found that Sikuli is able to recognize it even with those last "comma" and "space" in the end) by using...
NamesAsList = eval(Names)
How could I do this in python? is it necessary to use regex, or there is other way to do this in python?
I have already done this but using .Net regex, I just don't know how to do it in python, I have googled it with no result.
This is how I did it using .Net regex
Text to find:
(.*[^$])(\r\n|\z)
Replace with:
'$1',%" "%
Thanks Advanced.

A couple of one liners. Your question isn't completely clear - but I am assuming - you want to split a given string delimited by 'newline' and then generate a list of strings by removing the first character if it's not alpha numeric. Here's how I'd go about it
import re
r = re.compile(r'^[a-zA-Z0-9]') # match # beginning anything that's not alpha numeric
s = '#abc\ndef\nghi'
l = [r.sub('', x) for x in s.split()]
# join this list with comma (if that's required else you got the list already)
','.join(l)
Hope that's what you want.

If Names is a string before you "convert" it, in which each name is separated by a new line ('\n'), then this will work:
NamesAsList = '\n'.split(Names)
See this question for other options.

You could use splitlines()
import re
clipBoard = App.getClipboard();
Names = re.sub(r"(?m)^([^\x00-\x7F]+|\W|\d)", "", clipBoard)
# Replace the end of a line with a comma.
singleNames = ', '.join(Names.splitlines())
print(singleNames)

regex in python 2.4

I have a string in python as below:
"\\B1\\B1xxA1xxMdl1zzInoAEROzzMofIN"
I want to get the string as
"B1xxA1xxMdl1zzInoAEROzzMofIN"
I think this can be done using regex but could not achieve it yet. Please give me an idea.

st = "\B1\B1xxA1xxMdl1zzInoAEROzzMofIN"
s = re.sub(r"\\","",st)
idx = s.rindex("B1")
print s[idx:]
output = 'B1xxA1xxMdl1zzInoAEROzzMofIN'
OR
st = "\B1\B1xxA1xxMdl1zzInoAEROzzMofIN"
idx = st.rindex("\\")
print st[idx+1:]
output = 'B1xxA1xxMdl1zzInoAEROzzMofIN'

Here is a try:
import re
s = "\\B1\\B1xxA1xxMdl1zzInoAEROzzMofIN"
s = re.sub(r"\\[^\\]+\\","", s)
print s
Tested on http://py-ide-online.appspot.com (couldn't find a way to share though)
[EDIT] For some explanation, have a look at the Python regex documentation page and the first comment of this SO question:
How to remove symbols from a string with Python?
because using brackets [] can be tricky (IMHO)
In this case, [^\\] means anything but two backslashes \\.
So [^\\]+ means one or more character that matches anything but two backslashes \\.

If the desired section of the string is always on the RHS of a \ char then you could use:
string = "\\B1\\B1xxA1xxMdl1zzInoAEROzzMofIN"
string.rpartition("\\")[2]
output = 'B1xxA1xxMdl1zzInoAEROzzMofIN'

python regex for repeating string

I am wanting to verify and then parse this string (in quotes):
string = "start: c12354, c3456, 34526; other stuff that I don't care about"
//Note that some codes begin with 'c'
I would like to verify that the string starts with 'start:' and ends with ';'
Afterward, I would like to have a regex parse out the strings. I tried the following python re code:
regx = r"start: (c?[0-9]+,?)+;"
reg = re.compile(regx)
matched = reg.search(string)
print ' matched.groups()', matched.groups()
I have tried different variations but I can either get the first or the last code but not a list of all three.
Or should I abandon using a regex?
EDIT: updated to reflect part of the problem space I neglected and fixed string difference.
Thanks for all the suggestions - in such a short time.

In Python, this isn’t possible with a single regular expression: each capture of a group overrides the last capture of that same group (in .NET, this would actually be possible since the engine distinguishes between captures and groups).
Your easiest solution is to first extract the part between start: and ; and then using a regular expression to return all matches, not just a single match, using re.findall('c?[0-9]+', text).

You could use the standard string tools, which are pretty much always more readable.
s = "start: c12354, c3456, 34526;"
s.startswith("start:") # returns a boolean if it starts with this string
s.endswith(";") # returns a boolean if it ends with this string
s[6:-1].split(', ') # will give you a list of tokens separated by the string ", "

This can be done (pretty elegantly) with a tool like Pyparsing:
from pyparsing import Group, Literal, Optional, Word
import string
code = Group(Optional(Literal("c"), default='') + Word(string.digits) + Optional(Literal(","), default=''))
parser = Literal("start:") + OneOrMore(code) + Literal(";")
# Read lines from file:
with open('lines.txt', 'r') as f:
for line in f:
try:
result = parser.parseString(line)
codes = [c[1] for c in result[1:-1]]
# Do something with teh codez...
except ParseException exc:
# Oh noes: string doesn't match!
continue
Cleaner than a regular expression, returns a list of codes (no need to string.split), and ignores any extra characters in the line, just like your example.

import re
sstr = re.compile(r'start:([^;]*);')
slst = re.compile(r'(?:c?)(\d+)')
mystr = "start: c12354, c3456, 34526; other stuff that I don't care about"
match = re.match(sstr, mystr)
if match:
res = re.findall(slst, match.group(0))
results in
['12354', '3456', '34526']