[Tutor] wierd replace problem

[Michael Powe]

On Mon, Sep 13, 2010 at 12:19:23PM +0000, Roelof Wobben wrote:
> 
> Hello, 
> 
> I have this string called test with the contents of 'het is een wonder \\TIS'
> 
> Now I want to get rid of the \\ so I do this : test2 = test.replace ('\\', '')
> And I get at the python prompt this answer : 'het is een wonder TIS' 
> So that's right.
> 
> Now I try the same in a IDE with this programm :
>  
> woorden =[]
> letter_counts = {}
> file = open ('alice_in_wonderland.txt', 'r')
> for line in file:
>     line2 = line.replace ("\\","")
>     line3 = line2.lower()
>     woorden = line3.split()
>     for letter in woorden:
>         letter_counts[letter] = letter_counts.get (letter, 0) + 1
> letter_items = letter_counts.items()
> letter_items.sort()
> print letter_items 
>  
> But now Im gettting this output :
>  
> [('"\'tis', 1), 
>  
> Why does the \ stays here. It should have gone as the test in the python prompt says.

Hello,

Actually, on closer look I can see the answer.

The original text must look something like this:

\\"'tis the season to be jolly," said santa.

When you run your process against a string in that format, you get the
output shown: ('"\'tis', 1).  The appearance of the backslash is
fortuitous.  It has nothing to do with the string.replace(), it's
there to escape the single quote, which is appearing in the middle of
a single-quoted string.  IF the double-quote had not also been there,
python would have replaced the outer quotes with double quotes, as it
does on my system before I got to thinking about that lonely double
quote.

Thanks.

mp

-- 
Michael Powe		michael at trollope.org		Naugatuck CT USA
"I wrote what I did because as a woman, as a mother, I was oppressed
and brokenhearted with the sorrows and injustice I saw, because as a
Christian I felt the dishonor to Christianity, -- because as a lover
of my country, I trembled at the coming day of wrath." -- H.B. Stowe
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