re.sub doesn't work properly in python

Question

my question sounds stupid but is there something that doesn't work with python 3.x and re.sub? Because this simple code seems to be wrong, it doesn't print '(026) 660 68 21' on my console. Can someone help me?

import re    
word = "Tél : (026) 660 68 21"
w = re.sub("Tél : ", "", word, count=1)
print(w)

Try testing it on non-Unicode characters e.g. what does `re.sub("6", "", word, count=1)` get you? — Akshat Mahajan, Apr 08 '16 at 22:09
Why are you using re.sub in the first place? `w = word.replace("Tél : ", ""))`. Also if the sub does not work you most likely have an encoding issue — Padraic Cunningham, Apr 08 '16 at 22:11
Possible duplicate of [Python: efficient method to replace accents (é to e), remove \[^a-zA-Z\d\s\], and lower()](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/15261793/python-efficient-method-to-replace-accents-%c3%a9-to-e-remove-a-za-z-d-s-and) — Artjom B., Apr 09 '16 at 13:25

wim · Answer 1 · 2016-04-08T22:29:51.153

2

I can not reproduce the issue with the code from your question.

But what you are seeing might happen, for example, if the e aigu character is in a different form:

>>> word = "Tél : (026) 660 68 21"
>>> substring = "Tél : "
>>> re.sub(substring, "", word, count=1)
'Tél : (026) 660 68 21'

The fix:

>>> from unicodedata import normalize
>>> def n(str_, form='NFC'):
        return normalize(form, str_)
... 
>>> re.sub(n(substring), "", n(word), count=1)
'(026) 660 68 21'

edited Apr 08 '16 at 22:29

answered Apr 08 '16 at 22:24

wim

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Also possible, one of the whitespaces might not be U+0020 but any of [these](https://codepoints.net/search?gc=Zs) (classically U+00A0). And if someone pulled a prank, the colon is [this](https://codepoints.net/U+2236). – Boldewyn Apr 08 '16 at 22:36
I was thinking about the e aigu too because the string is generate by data scrapping, so probably the problem. But your code doesn't work for me.. but thank's for the intuition, i'm going to check on this side – jjyoh Apr 08 '16 at 22:58

re.sub doesn't work properly in python

1 Answers1