How to remove symbols from a string with Python?
Sometimes it takes longer to figure out the regex than to just write it out in python:
import string
s = "how much for the maple syrup? $20.99? That's ricidulous!!!"
for char in string.punctuation:
s = s.replace(char, ' ')
If you need other characters you can change it to use a white-list or extend your black-list.
Sample white-list:
whitelist = string.letters + string.digits + ' '
new_s = ''
for char in s:
if char in whitelist:
new_s += char
else:
new_s += ' '
Sample white-list using a generator-expression:
whitelist = string.letters + string.digits + ' '
new_s = ''.join(c for c in s if c in whitelist)
One way, using regular expressions:
>>> s = "how much for the maple syrup? $20.99? That's ridiculous!!!"
>>> re.sub(r'[^\w]', ' ', s)
'how much for the maple syrup 20 99 That s ridiculous '
\w
will match alphanumeric characters and underscores[^\w]
will match anything that's not alphanumeric or underscore