How do I coalesce a sequence of identical characters into just one?

Suppose I have this:

My---sun--is------very-big---.

I want to replace all multiple hyphens with just one hyphen.

edited May 12 '10 at 9:03

SilentGhost

194k47265263

asked May 11 '10 at 19:28

TIMEX

68.7k274646953

3

Do you really want to coalesce only hyphens, or any run of duplicate characters?

– Andrew Jaffe
May 11 '10 at 19:35

add a comment |

Suppose I have this:

My---sun--is------very-big---.

I want to replace all multiple hyphens with just one hyphen.

edited May 12 '10 at 9:03

SilentGhost

194k47265263

asked May 11 '10 at 19:28

TIMEX

68.7k274646953

3

Do you really want to coalesce only hyphens, or any run of duplicate characters?

– Andrew Jaffe
May 11 '10 at 19:35

add a comment |

Suppose I have this:

My---sun--is------very-big---.

I want to replace all multiple hyphens with just one hyphen.

edited May 12 '10 at 9:03

SilentGhost

194k47265263

asked May 11 '10 at 19:28

TIMEX

68.7k274646953

Suppose I have this:

My---sun--is------very-big---.

I want to replace all multiple hyphens with just one hyphen.

python regex string

edited May 12 '10 at 9:03

SilentGhost

194k47265263

asked May 11 '10 at 19:28

TIMEX

68.7k274646953

edited May 12 '10 at 9:03

SilentGhost

194k47265263

asked May 11 '10 at 19:28

TIMEX

68.7k274646953

edited May 12 '10 at 9:03

SilentGhost

194k47265263

edited May 12 '10 at 9:03

SilentGhost

194k47265263

edited May 12 '10 at 9:03

SilentGhost

194k47265263

asked May 11 '10 at 19:28

TIMEX

68.7k274646953

asked May 11 '10 at 19:28

TIMEX

68.7k274646953

asked May 11 '10 at 19:28

TIMEX

68.7k274646953

3

Do you really want to coalesce only hyphens, or any run of duplicate characters?

– Andrew Jaffe
May 11 '10 at 19:35

add a comment |

3

Do you really want to coalesce only hyphens, or any run of duplicate characters?

– Andrew Jaffe
May 11 '10 at 19:35

Do you really want to coalesce only hyphens, or any run of duplicate characters?

– Andrew Jaffe
May 11 '10 at 19:35

add a comment |

10 Answers
10

active

oldest

votes

import re



astr='My---sun--is------very-big---.'



print(re.sub('-+','-',astr))

# My-sun-is-very-big-.

answered May 11 '10 at 19:31

unutbu

550k10111821239

1

+1, but -{2,} would avoid replacing single - unnecessarily.

– Tim Pietzcker
May 12 '10 at 8:37

add a comment |

If you want to replace any run of consecutive characters, you can use

>>> import re

>>> a = "AA---BC++++DDDD-EE$$$$FF"

>>> print(re.sub(r"(.)1+",r"1",a))

A-BC+D-E$F

If you only want to coalesce non-word-characters, use

>>> print(re.sub(r"(W)1+",r"1",a))

AA-BC+DDDD-EE$FF

If it's really just hyphens, I recommend unutbu's solution.

edited May 12 '10 at 8:39

answered May 11 '10 at 20:10

Tim Pietzcker

248k43374458

add a comment |

If you really only want to coalesce hyphens, use the other suggestions. Otherwise you can write your own function, something like this:

>>> def coalesce(x):

...     n = 

...     for c in x:

...         if not n or c != n[-1]:

...             n.append(c)

...     return ''.join(n)

...

>>> coalesce('My---sun--is------very-big---.')

'My-sun-is-very-big-.'

>>> coalesce('aaabbbccc')

'abc'

answered May 11 '10 at 19:55

FogleBird

49k21103122

+1 for a general solution. Since the OP used English words in their example, specifying a set of characters to coalesce (or not coalesce) would probably be preferable so as to avoid mangling words with double letters (i.e. letters -> leters).

– tgray
May 11 '10 at 20:00

Agreed on the +1 for a general solution

– mcpeterson
May 11 '10 at 21:43

add a comment |

As usual, there's a nice itertools solution, using groupby:

>>> from itertools import groupby

>>> s = 'aaaaa----bbb-----cccc----d-d-d'

>>> ''.join(key for key, group in groupby(s))

'a-b-c-d-d-d'

answered May 11 '10 at 20:05

Will McCutchen

11.4k33442

1

This solution doesn't answer the question if you only want to dedupe the hyphens. Is there an itertools solution that would keep 'aaaaa'?

– mcpeterson
May 11 '10 at 22:18

2

@McPeterson: Sure, but they're not as nice. For just handling hyphens, you can do ''.join(key if key == '-' else ''.join(group) for key, group in groupby(s)). For handling any non-alphanumeric character, ''.join(''.join(group) if key.isalnum() else key for key, group in groupby(s)). But I'd just use one of the regex solutions instead.

– Will McCutchen
May 11 '10 at 22:48

add a comment |

How about:

>>> import re

>>> re.sub("-+", "-", "My---sun--is------very-big---.")

'My-sun-is-very-big-.'

the regular expression "-+" will look for 1 or more "-".

answered May 11 '10 at 19:34

Charles Beattie

4,06012129

add a comment |

re.sub('-+', '-', "My---sun--is------very-big---")

answered May 11 '10 at 19:33

Jakub Hampl

32.2k86197

add a comment |

How about an alternate without the re module:

'-'.join(filter(lambda w: len(w) > 0, 'My---sun--is------very-big---.'.split("-")))

Or going with Tim and FogleBird's previous suggestion, here's a more general method:

def coalesce_factory(x):

    return lambda sent: x.join(filter(lambda w: len(w) > 0, sent.split(x)))



hyphen_coalesce = coalesce_factory("-")

hyphen_coalesce('My---sun--is------very-big---.')

Though personally, I would use the re module first :)

mcpeterson

edited May 11 '10 at 21:47

answered May 11 '10 at 21:29

mcpeterson

3,22031621

add a comment |

Another simple solution is the String object's replace function.

while '--' in astr:

    astr = astr.replace('--','-')

answered May 11 '10 at 22:59

user334997

add a comment |

if you don't want to use regular expressions:

    my_string = my_string.split('-')

    my_string = filter(None, my_string)

    my_string = '-'.join(my_string)

answered Dec 8 '14 at 14:15

user4337613

add a comment |

I have

my_str = 'a, b,,,,, c, , , d'

I want

'a,b,c,d'

compress all the blanks (the "replace" bit), then split on the comma, then if not None join with a comma in between:

my_str_2 = ','.join([i for i in my_str.replace(" ", "").split(',') if i])

answered Jan 20 at 9:40

MZA

32357

add a comment |

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10 Answers
10

active

oldest

votes

10 Answers
10

active

oldest

votes

import re



astr='My---sun--is------very-big---.'



print(re.sub('-+','-',astr))

# My-sun-is-very-big-.

answered May 11 '10 at 19:31

unutbu

550k10111821239

1

+1, but -{2,} would avoid replacing single - unnecessarily.

– Tim Pietzcker
May 12 '10 at 8:37

add a comment |

import re



astr='My---sun--is------very-big---.'



print(re.sub('-+','-',astr))

# My-sun-is-very-big-.

answered May 11 '10 at 19:31

unutbu

550k10111821239

1

+1, but -{2,} would avoid replacing single - unnecessarily.

– Tim Pietzcker
May 12 '10 at 8:37

add a comment |

import re



astr='My---sun--is------very-big---.'



print(re.sub('-+','-',astr))

# My-sun-is-very-big-.

answered May 11 '10 at 19:31

unutbu

550k10111821239

import re



astr='My---sun--is------very-big---.'



print(re.sub('-+','-',astr))

# My-sun-is-very-big-.

answered May 11 '10 at 19:31

unutbu

550k10111821239

answered May 11 '10 at 19:31

unutbu

550k10111821239

answered May 11 '10 at 19:31

unutbu

550k10111821239

answered May 11 '10 at 19:31

unutbu

550k10111821239

1

+1, but -{2,} would avoid replacing single - unnecessarily.

– Tim Pietzcker
May 12 '10 at 8:37

add a comment |

1

+1, but -{2,} would avoid replacing single - unnecessarily.

– Tim Pietzcker
May 12 '10 at 8:37

+1, but -{2,} would avoid replacing single - unnecessarily.

– Tim Pietzcker
May 12 '10 at 8:37

add a comment |

If you want to replace any run of consecutive characters, you can use

>>> import re

>>> a = "AA---BC++++DDDD-EE$$$$FF"

>>> print(re.sub(r"(.)1+",r"1",a))

A-BC+D-E$F

If you only want to coalesce non-word-characters, use

>>> print(re.sub(r"(W)1+",r"1",a))

AA-BC+DDDD-EE$FF

If it's really just hyphens, I recommend unutbu's solution.

edited May 12 '10 at 8:39

answered May 11 '10 at 20:10

Tim Pietzcker

248k43374458

add a comment |

If you want to replace any run of consecutive characters, you can use

>>> import re

>>> a = "AA---BC++++DDDD-EE$$$$FF"

>>> print(re.sub(r"(.)1+",r"1",a))

A-BC+D-E$F

If you only want to coalesce non-word-characters, use

>>> print(re.sub(r"(W)1+",r"1",a))

AA-BC+DDDD-EE$FF

If it's really just hyphens, I recommend unutbu's solution.

edited May 12 '10 at 8:39

answered May 11 '10 at 20:10

Tim Pietzcker

248k43374458

add a comment |

If you want to replace any run of consecutive characters, you can use

>>> import re

>>> a = "AA---BC++++DDDD-EE$$$$FF"

>>> print(re.sub(r"(.)1+",r"1",a))

A-BC+D-E$F

If you only want to coalesce non-word-characters, use

>>> print(re.sub(r"(W)1+",r"1",a))

AA-BC+DDDD-EE$FF

If it's really just hyphens, I recommend unutbu's solution.

edited May 12 '10 at 8:39

answered May 11 '10 at 20:10

Tim Pietzcker

248k43374458

If you want to replace any run of consecutive characters, you can use

>>> import re

>>> a = "AA---BC++++DDDD-EE$$$$FF"

>>> print(re.sub(r"(.)1+",r"1",a))

A-BC+D-E$F

If you only want to coalesce non-word-characters, use

>>> print(re.sub(r"(W)1+",r"1",a))

AA-BC+DDDD-EE$FF

If it's really just hyphens, I recommend unutbu's solution.

edited May 12 '10 at 8:39

answered May 11 '10 at 20:10

Tim Pietzcker

248k43374458

edited May 12 '10 at 8:39

answered May 11 '10 at 20:10

Tim Pietzcker

248k43374458

answered May 11 '10 at 20:10

Tim Pietzcker

248k43374458

answered May 11 '10 at 20:10

Tim Pietzcker

248k43374458

add a comment |

If you really only want to coalesce hyphens, use the other suggestions. Otherwise you can write your own function, something like this:

>>> def coalesce(x):

...     n = 

...     for c in x:

...         if not n or c != n[-1]:

...             n.append(c)

...     return ''.join(n)

...

>>> coalesce('My---sun--is------very-big---.')

'My-sun-is-very-big-.'

>>> coalesce('aaabbbccc')

'abc'

answered May 11 '10 at 19:55

FogleBird

49k21103122

+1 for a general solution. Since the OP used English words in their example, specifying a set of characters to coalesce (or not coalesce) would probably be preferable so as to avoid mangling words with double letters (i.e. letters -> leters).

– tgray
May 11 '10 at 20:00

Agreed on the +1 for a general solution

– mcpeterson
May 11 '10 at 21:43

add a comment |

If you really only want to coalesce hyphens, use the other suggestions. Otherwise you can write your own function, something like this:

>>> def coalesce(x):

...     n = 

...     for c in x:

...         if not n or c != n[-1]:

...             n.append(c)

...     return ''.join(n)

...

>>> coalesce('My---sun--is------very-big---.')

'My-sun-is-very-big-.'

>>> coalesce('aaabbbccc')

'abc'

answered May 11 '10 at 19:55

FogleBird

49k21103122

+1 for a general solution. Since the OP used English words in their example, specifying a set of characters to coalesce (or not coalesce) would probably be preferable so as to avoid mangling words with double letters (i.e. letters -> leters).

– tgray
May 11 '10 at 20:00

Agreed on the +1 for a general solution

– mcpeterson
May 11 '10 at 21:43

add a comment |

If you really only want to coalesce hyphens, use the other suggestions. Otherwise you can write your own function, something like this:

>>> def coalesce(x):

...     n = 

...     for c in x:

...         if not n or c != n[-1]:

...             n.append(c)

...     return ''.join(n)

...

>>> coalesce('My---sun--is------very-big---.')

'My-sun-is-very-big-.'

>>> coalesce('aaabbbccc')

'abc'

answered May 11 '10 at 19:55

FogleBird

49k21103122

If you really only want to coalesce hyphens, use the other suggestions. Otherwise you can write your own function, something like this:

>>> def coalesce(x):

...     n = 

...     for c in x:

...         if not n or c != n[-1]:

...             n.append(c)

...     return ''.join(n)

...

>>> coalesce('My---sun--is------very-big---.')

'My-sun-is-very-big-.'

>>> coalesce('aaabbbccc')

'abc'

answered May 11 '10 at 19:55

FogleBird

49k21103122

answered May 11 '10 at 19:55

FogleBird

49k21103122

answered May 11 '10 at 19:55

FogleBird

49k21103122

answered May 11 '10 at 19:55

FogleBird

49k21103122

+1 for a general solution. Since the OP used English words in their example, specifying a set of characters to coalesce (or not coalesce) would probably be preferable so as to avoid mangling words with double letters (i.e. letters -> leters).

– tgray
May 11 '10 at 20:00

Agreed on the +1 for a general solution

– mcpeterson
May 11 '10 at 21:43

add a comment |

+1 for a general solution. Since the OP used English words in their example, specifying a set of characters to coalesce (or not coalesce) would probably be preferable so as to avoid mangling words with double letters (i.e. letters -> leters).

– tgray
May 11 '10 at 20:00

Agreed on the +1 for a general solution

– mcpeterson
May 11 '10 at 21:43

+1 for a general solution. Since the OP used English words in their example, specifying a set of characters to coalesce (or not coalesce) would probably be preferable so as to avoid mangling words with double letters (i.e. letters -> leters).

– tgray
May 11 '10 at 20:00

Agreed on the +1 for a general solution

– mcpeterson
May 11 '10 at 21:43

add a comment |

As usual, there's a nice itertools solution, using groupby:

>>> from itertools import groupby

>>> s = 'aaaaa----bbb-----cccc----d-d-d'

>>> ''.join(key for key, group in groupby(s))

'a-b-c-d-d-d'

answered May 11 '10 at 20:05

Will McCutchen

11.4k33442

1

This solution doesn't answer the question if you only want to dedupe the hyphens. Is there an itertools solution that would keep 'aaaaa'?

– mcpeterson
May 11 '10 at 22:18

2

@McPeterson: Sure, but they're not as nice. For just handling hyphens, you can do ''.join(key if key == '-' else ''.join(group) for key, group in groupby(s)). For handling any non-alphanumeric character, ''.join(''.join(group) if key.isalnum() else key for key, group in groupby(s)). But I'd just use one of the regex solutions instead.

– Will McCutchen
May 11 '10 at 22:48

add a comment |

As usual, there's a nice itertools solution, using groupby:

>>> from itertools import groupby

>>> s = 'aaaaa----bbb-----cccc----d-d-d'

>>> ''.join(key for key, group in groupby(s))

'a-b-c-d-d-d'

answered May 11 '10 at 20:05

Will McCutchen

11.4k33442

1

This solution doesn't answer the question if you only want to dedupe the hyphens. Is there an itertools solution that would keep 'aaaaa'?

– mcpeterson
May 11 '10 at 22:18

2

@McPeterson: Sure, but they're not as nice. For just handling hyphens, you can do ''.join(key if key == '-' else ''.join(group) for key, group in groupby(s)). For handling any non-alphanumeric character, ''.join(''.join(group) if key.isalnum() else key for key, group in groupby(s)). But I'd just use one of the regex solutions instead.

– Will McCutchen
May 11 '10 at 22:48

add a comment |

As usual, there's a nice itertools solution, using groupby:

>>> from itertools import groupby

>>> s = 'aaaaa----bbb-----cccc----d-d-d'

>>> ''.join(key for key, group in groupby(s))

'a-b-c-d-d-d'

answered May 11 '10 at 20:05

Will McCutchen

11.4k33442

As usual, there's a nice itertools solution, using groupby:

>>> from itertools import groupby

>>> s = 'aaaaa----bbb-----cccc----d-d-d'

>>> ''.join(key for key, group in groupby(s))

'a-b-c-d-d-d'

answered May 11 '10 at 20:05

Will McCutchen

11.4k33442

answered May 11 '10 at 20:05

Will McCutchen

11.4k33442

answered May 11 '10 at 20:05

Will McCutchen

11.4k33442

answered May 11 '10 at 20:05

Will McCutchen

11.4k33442

1

This solution doesn't answer the question if you only want to dedupe the hyphens. Is there an itertools solution that would keep 'aaaaa'?

– mcpeterson
May 11 '10 at 22:18

2

@McPeterson: Sure, but they're not as nice. For just handling hyphens, you can do ''.join(key if key == '-' else ''.join(group) for key, group in groupby(s)). For handling any non-alphanumeric character, ''.join(''.join(group) if key.isalnum() else key for key, group in groupby(s)). But I'd just use one of the regex solutions instead.

– Will McCutchen
May 11 '10 at 22:48

add a comment |

1

This solution doesn't answer the question if you only want to dedupe the hyphens. Is there an itertools solution that would keep 'aaaaa'?

– mcpeterson
May 11 '10 at 22:18

2

@McPeterson: Sure, but they're not as nice. For just handling hyphens, you can do ''.join(key if key == '-' else ''.join(group) for key, group in groupby(s)). For handling any non-alphanumeric character, ''.join(''.join(group) if key.isalnum() else key for key, group in groupby(s)). But I'd just use one of the regex solutions instead.

– Will McCutchen
May 11 '10 at 22:48

This solution doesn't answer the question if you only want to dedupe the hyphens. Is there an itertools solution that would keep 'aaaaa'?

– mcpeterson
May 11 '10 at 22:18

@McPeterson: Sure, but they're not as nice. For just handling hyphens, you can do ''.join(key if key == '-' else ''.join(group) for key, group in groupby(s)). For handling any non-alphanumeric character, ''.join(''.join(group) if key.isalnum() else key for key, group in groupby(s)). But I'd just use one of the regex solutions instead.

– Will McCutchen
May 11 '10 at 22:48

add a comment |

How about:

>>> import re

>>> re.sub("-+", "-", "My---sun--is------very-big---.")

'My-sun-is-very-big-.'

the regular expression "-+" will look for 1 or more "-".

answered May 11 '10 at 19:34

Charles Beattie

4,06012129

add a comment |

How about:

>>> import re

>>> re.sub("-+", "-", "My---sun--is------very-big---.")

'My-sun-is-very-big-.'

the regular expression "-+" will look for 1 or more "-".

answered May 11 '10 at 19:34

Charles Beattie

4,06012129

add a comment |

How about:

>>> import re

>>> re.sub("-+", "-", "My---sun--is------very-big---.")

'My-sun-is-very-big-.'

the regular expression "-+" will look for 1 or more "-".

answered May 11 '10 at 19:34

Charles Beattie

4,06012129

How about:

>>> import re

>>> re.sub("-+", "-", "My---sun--is------very-big---.")

'My-sun-is-very-big-.'

the regular expression "-+" will look for 1 or more "-".

answered May 11 '10 at 19:34

Charles Beattie

4,06012129

answered May 11 '10 at 19:34

Charles Beattie

4,06012129

answered May 11 '10 at 19:34

Charles Beattie

4,06012129

answered May 11 '10 at 19:34

Charles Beattie

4,06012129

add a comment |

re.sub('-+', '-', "My---sun--is------very-big---")

answered May 11 '10 at 19:33

Jakub Hampl

32.2k86197

add a comment |

re.sub('-+', '-', "My---sun--is------very-big---")

answered May 11 '10 at 19:33

Jakub Hampl

32.2k86197

add a comment |

re.sub('-+', '-', "My---sun--is------very-big---")

answered May 11 '10 at 19:33

Jakub Hampl

32.2k86197

re.sub('-+', '-', "My---sun--is------very-big---")

answered May 11 '10 at 19:33

Jakub Hampl

32.2k86197

answered May 11 '10 at 19:33

Jakub Hampl

32.2k86197

answered May 11 '10 at 19:33

Jakub Hampl

32.2k86197

answered May 11 '10 at 19:33

Jakub Hampl

32.2k86197

add a comment |

How about an alternate without the re module:

'-'.join(filter(lambda w: len(w) > 0, 'My---sun--is------very-big---.'.split("-")))

Or going with Tim and FogleBird's previous suggestion, here's a more general method:

def coalesce_factory(x):

    return lambda sent: x.join(filter(lambda w: len(w) > 0, sent.split(x)))



hyphen_coalesce = coalesce_factory("-")

hyphen_coalesce('My---sun--is------very-big---.')

Though personally, I would use the re module first :)

mcpeterson

edited May 11 '10 at 21:47

answered May 11 '10 at 21:29

mcpeterson

3,22031621

add a comment |

How about an alternate without the re module:

'-'.join(filter(lambda w: len(w) > 0, 'My---sun--is------very-big---.'.split("-")))

Or going with Tim and FogleBird's previous suggestion, here's a more general method:

def coalesce_factory(x):

    return lambda sent: x.join(filter(lambda w: len(w) > 0, sent.split(x)))



hyphen_coalesce = coalesce_factory("-")

hyphen_coalesce('My---sun--is------very-big---.')

Though personally, I would use the re module first :)

mcpeterson

edited May 11 '10 at 21:47

answered May 11 '10 at 21:29

mcpeterson

3,22031621

add a comment |

How about an alternate without the re module:

'-'.join(filter(lambda w: len(w) > 0, 'My---sun--is------very-big---.'.split("-")))

Or going with Tim and FogleBird's previous suggestion, here's a more general method:

def coalesce_factory(x):

    return lambda sent: x.join(filter(lambda w: len(w) > 0, sent.split(x)))



hyphen_coalesce = coalesce_factory("-")

hyphen_coalesce('My---sun--is------very-big---.')

Though personally, I would use the re module first :)

mcpeterson

edited May 11 '10 at 21:47

answered May 11 '10 at 21:29

mcpeterson

3,22031621

How about an alternate without the re module:

'-'.join(filter(lambda w: len(w) > 0, 'My---sun--is------very-big---.'.split("-")))

Or going with Tim and FogleBird's previous suggestion, here's a more general method:

def coalesce_factory(x):

    return lambda sent: x.join(filter(lambda w: len(w) > 0, sent.split(x)))



hyphen_coalesce = coalesce_factory("-")

hyphen_coalesce('My---sun--is------very-big---.')

Though personally, I would use the re module first :)

mcpeterson

edited May 11 '10 at 21:47

answered May 11 '10 at 21:29

mcpeterson

3,22031621

edited May 11 '10 at 21:47

answered May 11 '10 at 21:29

mcpeterson

3,22031621

answered May 11 '10 at 21:29

mcpeterson

3,22031621

answered May 11 '10 at 21:29

mcpeterson

3,22031621

add a comment |

Another simple solution is the String object's replace function.

while '--' in astr:

    astr = astr.replace('--','-')

answered May 11 '10 at 22:59

user334997

add a comment |

Another simple solution is the String object's replace function.

while '--' in astr:

    astr = astr.replace('--','-')

answered May 11 '10 at 22:59

user334997

add a comment |

Another simple solution is the String object's replace function.

while '--' in astr:

    astr = astr.replace('--','-')

answered May 11 '10 at 22:59

user334997

Another simple solution is the String object's replace function.

while '--' in astr:

    astr = astr.replace('--','-')

answered May 11 '10 at 22:59

user334997

answered May 11 '10 at 22:59

user334997

answered May 11 '10 at 22:59

user334997

answered May 11 '10 at 22:59

user334997

add a comment |

if you don't want to use regular expressions:

    my_string = my_string.split('-')

    my_string = filter(None, my_string)

    my_string = '-'.join(my_string)

answered Dec 8 '14 at 14:15

user4337613

add a comment |

if you don't want to use regular expressions:

    my_string = my_string.split('-')

    my_string = filter(None, my_string)

    my_string = '-'.join(my_string)

answered Dec 8 '14 at 14:15

user4337613

add a comment |

if you don't want to use regular expressions:

    my_string = my_string.split('-')

    my_string = filter(None, my_string)

    my_string = '-'.join(my_string)

answered Dec 8 '14 at 14:15

user4337613

if you don't want to use regular expressions:

    my_string = my_string.split('-')

    my_string = filter(None, my_string)

    my_string = '-'.join(my_string)

answered Dec 8 '14 at 14:15

user4337613

answered Dec 8 '14 at 14:15

user4337613

answered Dec 8 '14 at 14:15

user4337613

answered Dec 8 '14 at 14:15

user4337613

add a comment |

I have

my_str = 'a, b,,,,, c, , , d'

I want

'a,b,c,d'

compress all the blanks (the "replace" bit), then split on the comma, then if not None join with a comma in between:

my_str_2 = ','.join([i for i in my_str.replace(" ", "").split(',') if i])

answered Jan 20 at 9:40

MZA

32357

add a comment |

I have

my_str = 'a, b,,,,, c, , , d'

I want

'a,b,c,d'

compress all the blanks (the "replace" bit), then split on the comma, then if not None join with a comma in between:

my_str_2 = ','.join([i for i in my_str.replace(" ", "").split(',') if i])

answered Jan 20 at 9:40

MZA

32357

add a comment |

I have

my_str = 'a, b,,,,, c, , , d'

I want

'a,b,c,d'

compress all the blanks (the "replace" bit), then split on the comma, then if not None join with a comma in between:

my_str_2 = ','.join([i for i in my_str.replace(" ", "").split(',') if i])

answered Jan 20 at 9:40

MZA

32357

I have

my_str = 'a, b,,,,, c, , , d'

I want

'a,b,c,d'

compress all the blanks (the "replace" bit), then split on the comma, then if not None join with a comma in between:

my_str_2 = ','.join([i for i in my_str.replace(" ", "").split(',') if i])

answered Jan 20 at 9:40

MZA

32357

answered Jan 20 at 9:40

MZA

32357

answered Jan 20 at 9:40

MZA

32357

answered Jan 20 at 9:40

MZA

32357

add a comment |

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