re. help needed :(

[Dan Bishop]

"G. Willoughby" <sab at NOSPAM.freeuk.com> wrote in message news:<a56838$qb8$1 at newsg4.svr.pol.co.uk>...
> Hi,
>     Im trying to replace the single word "lamb" and the word lamb followed
> by any punctuation in this string:
> 
> x="Mary had a little lamb called lamb, but didn't like the lamb's mood"
> 
> i want to replace all of the single words "lamb[punctuation]" but not the
> word "lamb's" to achieve this:
> 
> x="Mary had a little pig called pig, but didn't like the lamb's mood"
> 
> any help with be greatly appreiciated!

Here's one way:

x = x.replace("lamb's", "XspamX").replace("lamb", "pig").replace("XspamX", "lamb's")