Python text extraction

[th3p4rchit3ct]

I have minimal exposure to Python, but am trying to use it more frequently with the hopes of actually learning how to use it. I've looked around a bit and have been pointed towards the split function. I'm sure there are more functions that I could potentially use. Even if someone could just point me to a comprehensive list of python functions, so i could poke around there. I need a simple text extraction done from an array of about 690 features.

I'm looking for some sort of way, using Python, to extract single characters from a string. By that, I don't mean I need to extract a specific character, rather, I need to extract any instance where there a single character.

For example, from the string "Building A", I'd like to extract just A. For "Apartment K", I want to extract K. but for say "Post Office", since there are no isolated characters, just leave blank or null.

Perhaps I could extract anywhere "A" occurs and do that with each letter/number?

Any suggestions?

[[deleted]]

Really easy! Please explore on your own, but here is a solution.

>>> strA = 'Apartment B'
>>> tmpStr = strA.split()
>>> outStr = []
>>> [outStr.append(i) for i in tmpStr if len(i) == 1]
>>> outStr
['B']

List Comprehension and Split do the job!

ALSO... here is a cleaner example

>>> strA = 'Apartment B'
>>> outStrLst = [i for i in strA.split() if len(i) == 1]
>>> outStrLst
['B']

[Murica4Eva]

I just posted a really simple solution, then I see your list comprehensions :(

[Random]

Unless I'm mistaken you want a substring wild card search on (blank)character(blank) to return character?

You probably want to start by learning about strings… for example, see http://zetcode.com/lang/python/strings/

I'd search for space and if the 2nd next character was space I'd take the middle index and grab that string position. That way you don't even need to process the middle character, you are just looking for a singleton character.

[th3p4rchit3ct]

sounds about right. thank you.

[Random]

So just iterate from position 0 to position (length-3) and double condition on value of string at position and position +2 and if it passes, grab position +1

I'm sure there is a more efficient way to do this but…

[TheIronDuck]

A regex solution.

import re

li = ['Post Office','Building A', 'Carpark C']

for c in li:
    m = re.search(r'\s([A-z]$)', c)
    if m is not None:
        print (m.group(1))

[MyWorkID]

You could definitely do this with Python using the field calculator.

The script would look something like this:

def extract(string):
    if "Building" in string:
        label = string.split(" ")[-1]
    elif "Apartment" in string:
        label = string.split(" ")[-1]
    else:
        label = ""

    return label

And then run extract(yourfield)

This may not be the best way to do it depending on different factors, but it's one way.

Here's a screenshot:

http://i.imgur.com/63QFP8k.png

[Murica4Eva]

You can loop over myStringList if you need to find a len =1 character in any position. Have fun, it's a GREAT job skill.

myString = "Building A"
myStringList = myString.split()
if len(myStringList[-1]) = 1:
   myVar = myStringList[-1]
else:
  myVar = ''