Padding multiple character with space - python

Question

In perl, I can do the following with will pad my punctuation symbols with spaces:

s/([،;؛¿!\"\\])}»›”؟%٪°±©®।॥…])/ $1 /g;` 

In

Answer 1

Python version of $1 is \1, but you should use regex substitution instead of simple string replace:

import re

p = ur'([،;؛¿!"\])}»›”؟%٪°±©®।॥…])'
text = u"this, is a sentence with weird» symbols… appearing everywhere¿"

print re.sub(p, ur' \1 ', text)

Outputs:

this , is a sentence with weird »  symbols …  appearing everywhere ¿ 

Answer 2

Use the format function, and insert a unicode string:

p = u'،;؛¿!"\])}»›”؟%٪°±©®।॥…'
text = u"this, is a sentence with weird» symbols… appearing everywhere¿"
for i in p:
    text = text.replace(i, u' {} '.format(i))

print(text)

Output

this, is a sentence with weird »  symbols …  appearing everywhere ¿ 

Answer 3

You can use re.sub, with \1 as a placeholder.

>>> p = u'،;؛¿!"\])}»›”؟%٪°±©®।॥…'
>>> text = u"this, is a sentence with weird» symbols… appearing everywhere¿"
>>> text = re.sub(u'([{}])'.format(p), r' \1 ', text)
>>> print text
this, is a sentence with weird »  symbols …  appearing everywhere ¿