Matching horizontal white space

[Magnus.Moraberg]

multipleSpaces = re.compile(u'\\ h+')

importantTextSt ring = '\n \n \n \t\t '
importantTextSt ring = multipleSpaces. sub("M", importantTextSt ring)

I would have expected consecutive spaces and tabs to be replaced by M
but nothing is being replaced. If I try the following, then I'm left
only with M, as expected -

multipleSpaces = re.compile(u'\\ s+') # both vertical and horizontal

importantTextSt ring = '\n \n \n \t\t '
importantTextSt ring = multipleSpaces. sub("M", importantTextSt ring)
What I eventually wish to do is have only single spaces in my text and
to only have single carriage returns -

" one two three four

five
six

"

becoming -

"one two three four
five
six
"

Thanks,

Barry

[Fredrik Lundh]

Ma************* @gmail.com wrote:

multipleSpaces = re.compile(u'\\ h+')

importantTextSt ring = '\n \n \n \t\t '
importantTextSt ring = multipleSpaces. sub("M", importantTextSt ring)

what's "\\h" supposed to mean?

I would have expected consecutive spaces and tabs to be replaced by M
but nothing is being replaced.

if you know what you want to replace, be explicit:

>>importantText String = '\n \n \n \t\t '
re.compile( "[\t ]+").sub("M", importantTextSt ring)

'\nM\nM\nM'

</F>

[John Machin]

On Sep 13, 12:52*am, Fredrik Lundh <fred...@python ware.comwrote:

Magnus.Morab... @gmail.com wrote:

multipleSpaces = re.compile(u'\\ h+')

importantTextSt ring = '\n *\n *\n \t\t *'
importantTextSt ring = multipleSpaces. sub("M", importantTextSt ring)

what's "\\h" supposed to mean?

Match *h*orizontal whitespace, I guess ... looks like the maintainer
of the re equivalent in some other language has far too much spare
time :-)

[Ben Finney]

Ma************* @gmail.com writes:

multipleSpaces = re.compile(u'\\ h+')

importantTextSt ring = '\n \n \n \t\t '
importantTextSt ring = multipleSpaces. sub("M", importantTextSt ring)

Please get into the habit of following the Python coding style guide
<URL:http://www.python.org/dev/peps/pep-0008>.

For literal strings that you expect to contain backslashes, it's often
clearer to use the "raw" string syntax:

multiple_spaces = re.compile(ur'\ h+')

I would have expected consecutive spaces and tabs to be replaced by
M

Why, what leads you to expect that? Your regular expression doesn't
specify spaces or tabs. It specifies "the character 'h', one or more
times".

For "space or tab", specify a character class of space and tab:

>>multiple_spac es = re.compile(u'[\t ]+')
important_tex t_string = u'\n \n \n \t\t '
multiple_spac es.sub("M", important_text_ string)

u'\nM\nM\nM'
You probably want to read the documentation for the Python 're' module
<URL:http://www.python.org/doc/lib/module-re>. This is standard
practice when using any unfamiliar module from the standard library.

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Ben Finney