from the desk of stinkpot

to do string substitutions in python, use the “re” module and the “sub” function:

>>> import re

…

>>> test = “2545423/1-4242:0.3245″

>>> test ; re.sub(“/\d-\d*:”,”:”,test)
’2545423/1-4242:0.3245′
’2545423:0.3245′

and, to match a group and then use it in the substitution, use parentheses and the \<number> operation:

>>> new_boot_s = re.sub(“(\d+:)”,”n\\1″,boot_s)