re.sub on lists - python 3

Question

I have a list on which I try to remove special chars using a loop. When I\'ve tried to remove those special chars without a loop, it worked. But with a loop didn\'t work, bu

Answer 1

Assuming you are trying to keep the stuff inside the brackets, this works:

import re
# Case 1 : no sub!
w = '[ 1,2,3,4 ]'

outer= re.compile("\[(.+)\]")
m = outer.search(w)
inner_str = m.group(1)
print(inner_str)

# Case 2 - no sub!
x = [ '[1]', '[2]' ]

y = []
for item in x:
    match = outer.match(item)
    if match:
        y.append(match.group(1))

print(y)

Answer 2

You can do this using a list comprehension, you mean something like this?

>>> import re
>>> x = [ '[1]', '[2]' ]
>>> [re.sub(r'\W', '', i) for i in x]
['1', '2']

The token \W matches any non-word character.