Insert characters in a string using python

Question

Here is what I am trying to achieve: I want to replace

void some_function(int,  int *, float);

with

void some_function(int a, int *b, float c);

So far, I have tried to replace "," with chr(97+i) as I loop through the string.

text = len("void some_function(int,  int *, float);")
i = 0
for j in range(0, length)
    if text[j] == ",":
       rep = " " + chr(97+i) + " .,"
       text = text.replace("," rep)
       i = i + 1
       j = 0 # resetting the index, but this time I want to find the next occurrence of "," which I am not sure

But this is not doing the job. Please let me know if there is a better way of doing this.

If you are trying to refactor generic code, it's a very non-trivial task. Think about cases where the function arguments span more than one line. Cases with 0 or 1 argument (no commas). How about void other_function(void) where you don't want a variable name? — JoeFish
– JoeFish, Commented Jun 7, 2012 at 17:45
If you are refactoring C code, I think you are better off doing this with a good code text editor... — dawg
– dawg, Commented Jun 7, 2012 at 17:55

Eric · Accepted Answer · 2012-06-07 17:39:06Z

1

import re

i = 96
def replace(matches):
    global i
    i += 1
    return " " + chr(i) + matches.group(0)

re.sub(',|\)', replace, "void some_function(int,  int *, float);")

answered Jun 7, 2012 at 17:39

Eric

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3 Comments

JoeFish Over a year ago

Nice answer, but it should be noted this will only work once, since i is global. After that you'll get d,e,f,g...until it explodes.

BrtH Over a year ago

I don't know C, but I was wondering, isn't it a problem that there's a space between * and b in the result?

Eric Over a year ago

@BrtH: Nope: int* b, int *b, int * b, and even int*b are valid

Aleksei astynax Pirogov · Accepted Answer · 2012-06-07 17:39:11Z

1

text = "void some_function(int,  int *, float);".replace(',', '%s,') % (' a', 'b')

answered Jun 7, 2012 at 17:39

Aleksei astynax Pirogov

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Comments

Sebastian Kreft · Accepted Answer · 2012-06-07 17:51:31Z

0

The original idea does not work, since the last parameter is not followed by a ',' but by a ')'.

import re
import string

def fix(text):
    n = len(re.findall('[,(]', text))
    return re.sub('([,)])', ' %s\\1', text) % tuple(string.letters[:n])

answered Jun 7, 2012 at 17:51

Sebastian Kreft

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1 Comment

JoeFish Over a year ago

Correctly answers the OP's very specific case, but still fails for things like fix('joefunc()') and fix('joefunc(void)'). Not a dig on the answer, just a note for the OP.

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