How to remove a second '+' character from telephone string using python

Question

eg string +444401608+642055

need to remove any '+' characters unelss the '+' is in the first position of the string.

Prefereably using the 're' python library.

+444401608+642055 -> +444401608642055

+4444+01608+642+055 -> +444401608642055

thanks in advance!!

Answer 1

You could use:

foo = '+444401608+642055'
bar = foo[0] + foo[1:].replace('+', '')
print(bar)

This assumes your string has at least one character ( foo[0] ). It works because if foo[0] isn't a + we can safely ignore it in the str.replace() anyway. foo[1:] is just the rest of your string from the first character on.

If you really want to use regex you could use:

import re
foo = '+444401608+642055'
bar = re.sub(r'(?<!^)\+', '', foo)
print(bar)

(?<!) is a negative look behind.

^ indicates the start of a line.

\+ matches the character + literally.

So in other words, look for every + character that isn't immediately preceded by a line start and replace with '' or nothing.

https://regex101.com/r/om6Z1j/2