Changing multiple elements at once in Python

Question

I'm wondering how you can write an algorithm to switch multiple letters at once. What I am seeking is a way to change each (left-hand typing) Q or W or E or R or T in a (right-hand typing) Y or U or I or O or P without messing with the white spaces or capitalisation (actually use of the shift key) of a text and this as a 'mirror' along the entire keyboard (so it also includes punctuation signs).

Anyway, I'm going off topic. If I only would know how to change specific signs to other specific signs in a strong without heaving to write a spaghetti code with 112 if/elif statements (total signs I have to swap * 4, because of vice versa and shift values)/

Is it possible to get all the signs in a string and switch them with other signs in another while still not messing up the white spaces in the sentence?

for i in sentence:
    if i == 'Q':
        i = 'Y'
    elif i == 'q':
        i = 'y'
    elif i == # etc...

Would be far too long.

look at `str.translate` and `string.maketrans` – John La Rooy Mar 08 '13 at 11:29 — John La Rooy, Mar 08 '13 at 11:29
This might be it indeed. Thanks. – Denny Nuyts Mar 08 '13 at 11:30 — Denny Nuyts, Mar 08 '13 at 11:30

score 4 · Answer 1 · answered Mar 08 '13 at 11:31

4

>>> import string
>>> t = string.maketrans("Qq","Yy")
>>> "QqQq".translate(t)
'YyYy'

answered Mar 08 '13 at 11:31

John La Rooy

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score 1 · Answer 2 · answered Mar 08 '13 at 11:31

1

Use a dictionary:

In [7]: strs="aAb BcD"

In [8]: dic={'a':'q','A':'w','b':'E','B':'r','c':'A','D':'y'}

In [9]: "".join(dic.get(x,x) for x in strs)
Out[9]: 'qwE rAy'

answered Mar 08 '13 at 11:31

Ashwini Chaudhary

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Changing multiple elements at once in Python

2 Answers2