replacing multiple instances of commas beginning at specific position

[bruno at modulix]

striker wrote:
> I have a comma delimited text file that has multiple instances of
> multiple commas.  Each file will contain approximatley 300 lines.  For
> example:
> 
> one, two, three,,,,four,five,,,,six
> one, two, three,four,,,,,,,,,,eighteen,   and so on.
> 
> There is one time when multiple commas are allowed.  Just prior to the
> letters ADMNSRC there should be one instance of 4 commas. (
> ,eight,,,,ADMNSRC,thirteen, ).  The text ADMNSRC is NOT in the same
> place on each line.
> 
> What would be the best approach to replace all instances of multiple
> commas with just one comma, except for the 4 commas prior to ADMNSRC?

Seems like a typical use case for the re module...
-> now you've got *2* problems- !-)


-- 
bruno desthuilliers
python -c "print '@'.join(['.'.join([w[::-1] for w in p.split('.')]) for
p in 'onurb at xiludom.gro'.split('@')])"