replace whitespace and new line with comma

Question

I have a string like this:

filenames = 'file_1, file2, file3\nfile4'

I want to replace whitespaces with no space and new line with comma

So far i have tried this:

file_name = re.sub(r"\s+", "", filenames, flags=re.UNICODE)

which is returning:

file_name = 'file_1,file2,file3file4'

but i want:

filenames = 'file1,file2,file3,file4'

Answer 1

Try this:

file_name = re.sub(r"[,\s]+", ",", filenames, flags=re.UNICODE)

Answer 2

There is a difference from your written requirements and your desired output.

Firstly you need to replace '\n' with ', ' so it looks like your desired output.

Secondly, you are saying you want whitespaces with no spaces but in your desired output there is still spaces.

This is a fix for '\n':

doc = 'file_1, file2, file3\nfile4'
doc = doc.replace('\n', ', ')
print(doc)
file_1, file2, file3, file4

If you want whitespaces with no spaces:

doc = doc.replace(' ', '')
print(doc)
file_1,file2,file3,file4

Answer 3

A non regex solution would be to split, trim and join, after replacing all \n by ',' . This will prevent removing needed spaces (in example, if a filename contains a space)

filenames = 'file_1, file2, file3\nfile4, file         5'
','.join(filter(None, [s.strip() for s in filenames.replace('\n', ',').split(',')]))
# 'file_1,file2,file3,file4,file         5'

filter(None, [...]) will remove any empty string, if, in example, you have 'foo,bar,,hello\n\nworld'