Replace multiples substrings

[blackcorner]

Can anyone tell me if there is any function for replacing multiples substrings within a string.
For instance we have this function call to replace multiple appearances of the same substring:

newLine = line.replace(';', '_')

Here I replace all appearances of ';' with '_'
But what I need is a function that receives a list of substrings to replace withing a string.

newLine = line.replace([';', ',', '.'], '_')

Here I replace all appearances of ';', ',' and '.' with '_'

regards,
bc.

[jlm699]

I don't know if there's a specific function to do it, but you could do a simple for loop like:

>>> l = 'hi;your,face.is;on,fire'
>>> for c in [';',',','.']:
...     l = l.replace( c, '_' )
...     
>>> l
'hi_your_face_is_on_fire'
>>>

Or roll your own little function ie,

>>> l = 'hi;your,face.is;on,fire'
>>> def replaces( inp, old, new ):
...     for c in old: inp = inp.replace( c, new )
...     return inp
...     
>>> l = replaces(l, ';,.', '_')
>>> l
'hi_your_face_is_on_fire'
>>>

Same function, using list instead of string of chars

>>> l = 'hi;your,face.is;on,fire'
>>> l = replaces(l, [ ';', ',', '.' ], '_')
>>> l
'hi_your_face_is_on_fire'
>>>

[jice]

You can use regexp (re module) instead of string module for that.

[sneekula]

If you don't mind learning regex, which is almost another language, but used by many popular computer languages for text manipulation:

import re

p = re.compile(r'[;,.]')
s = 'hi;your,face.is;on,fire'
print p.sub('_', s)  # hi_your_face_is_on_fire

[Aia]

If you don't mind learning regex, which is almost another language

Regex it is just that, regular expression. A pattern describing some text.

[ZZucker]

Regex it is just that, regular expression. A pattern describing some text.

Yes we know! How about learning some Python first before giving primitive lectures. We are trying to help people and keep a friendly atmosphere here!

BTW, if you need help with the module re, simply type help(re). Or go to this Python expert:
http://www.amk.ca/python/howto/regex/