python reg ex to include missing commas

Question

I need to ensure an string to have comma separated values. The strings I read may have space separated values.

• Some commas might be missing in my input string

Answer 1

Maybe it would be easier use findall, str.join and str.strip, finding the strings between quotes first then all non-whitespace:

s = """ 1, ' unchanged 1' " unchanged  2 "  2.009, -2e15 3"""

r = re.compile("[\'\"].*?[\'\"]|\S+")
print(", ".join([x.strip(",") for x in r.findall(s)]))

1, ' unchanged 1', " unchanged  2 ", 2.009, -2e11, ' unchanged 1', " unchanged  2 ", 2.009, -2e15, 35, 3

If you don't want any space after the comma:

print(",".join([x.strip(",") for x in r.findall(s)]))
1,' unchanged 1'," unchanged  2 ",2.009,-2e15,3