Help with an addition to a Python script

Python
1

Hi all,

I am a novice user trying to add a section to an existing script that reads a CSV, and makes changes before outputting a new CSV.

I am trying to add a section that replaces a list of characters that are not acceptable in a specific field for each row in the CSV.

The rule is simple :

“*” should be replaced with “x”
“<” should be replaced with “–”
“>” should be replaced with “–”
“%” should be replaced with “–”

Therefore, I have written the following:

    bad_characters = ["*","<",">","%",]
            
    for bad_character in bad_characters:
        if bad_character in row["Supplier Catalog Number"]:
            if bad_character = "*":
                row["Supplier Catalog Number"].replace("*","x")
            else:
                row["Supplier Catalog Number"].replace(bad_character,"-")

Would this work? Can you use a variable as an argument in a replace function?

Thanks in advance,

Dan

2

First off, just test the code and see if it works.

Second off: Please read up what the .replace() is doing, because it makes pretty much your entire code useless.

3

@dan.everitt Hello, welcome to the forum. I see some issues in your code.
You have too many commas in the bad_characters list. You need to use the replace method on a string. What error message are you getting?

Here is a link.
https://www.programiz.com/python-programming/methods/string/replace

1 Like
4

Hi @Jagaya and @brandon_wallace ,

Thanks for your responses, they gave my the chance to think about some of the specifics of my code.

After some further research I was able to confirm that csv fields are considered as strings by default so my replace function would work. There were some other issues that I needed to figure out that I had missed, like the fact that I needed to write my replaced field somewhere, and that I had used a single “=” rather than “==” in line 5.

Anyway, long story short, I have now got a working code:

bad_characters = ["*","<",">","%",]

for bad_character in bad_characters:
    if bad_character in row["Supplier Catalog Number"]:
        if bad_character == "*":
            row["Supplier Catalog Number"] = row["Supplier Catalog Number"].replace("*","x")
        else:
            row["Supplier Catalog Number"] = row["Supplier Catalog Number"].replace(bad_character,"-")

Also @brandon_wallace I took note of your comment about the commas in the list, however, I prefer to leave an extra comma in as it makes it easier to add items to the list in future :slight_smile:

Thanks to both of you for taking the time to help!

D

5

I am glad it works ^^
Though to rephrase my point: You don not need the if at all.

6

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