parse unformatted string into dictionary with python

Question

I have following string.

DATE: 12242010Key Type: Nod32 Anti-Vir (30d trial) Key: a5B2s-sH12B-hgtY3-io87N-srg98-KLMNO

I need to create dictionary so it would be like

{
    "DATE": "12242010",
    "Key Type": "Nod32 Anti-Vir (30d trial)",
    "Key": "a5B2s-sH12B-hgtY3-io87N-srg98-KLMNO"
}

The problem is that string is unformatted

DATE: 12242010Key Type: Nod32 Anti-Vir (30d trial)

there is no space after Date before Key Type
also it would be nice to have some validation for Key, eg if there are 5 chars in each box of key and number of boxes

I am a beginner in python and moreover in regular expressions. Thanks a lot.

Here is my code. I am getting string from xpath. Why I can't use it in regex?

import re
import lxml.html as my_lxml_hmtl
tree = my_lxml_hmtl.parse("test.html")
text = tree.xpath("string(//*[contains(text(),'DATE')])")
# this works
print re.match('DATE:\s+([0-9]{8})\s*Key Type:\s+(.+)\s+Key:\s+((?:[^-]{5}(?:-[^-]{5})*))', 'DATE: 12242010Key Type: Nod32 Anti-Vir (30d trial) Key: a5B2s-sH12B-hgtY3-io87N-srg98-KLMNO').groups()

# and this doesn't work, why?
ss = str(text)
# print ss gives the same string which worked in re fabove
print re.match('DATE:\s+([0-9]{8})\s*Key Type:\s+(.+)\s+Key:\s+((?:[^-]{5}(?:-[^-]{5})*))', ss).groups()

when I'm trying to use text or str(text) instead of 'DATE: 12242010Key Type: Nod32 Anti-Vir (30d trial) Key: a5B2s-sH12B-hgtY3-io87N-srg98-KLMNO' I'm getting an error AttributeError: 'NoneType' object has no attribute 'groups'

What is wrong here?

Do you always have a string with DATE, Key Type and Key there or are there sometimes differences? — Nedec
– Nedec, Commented Dec 24, 2010 at 10:22

Tim Pietzcker · Accepted Answer · 2010-12-24 10:23:48Z

1

>>> import re
>>> regex = re.compile(r"DATE: (\d+)Key Type: (.*?) Key: ((?:\w{5}-){5}\w{5})")
>>> match = regex.match("DATE: 12242010Key Type: Nod32 Anti-Vir (30d trial) Key: a5B2s-sH12B-hgtY3-io87N-srg98-KLMNO")
>>> mydict = {"DATE": match.group(1),
...           "Key Type": match.group(2),
...           "Key": match.group(3)}
>>> mydict
{'DATE': '12242010', 'Key': 'a5B2s-sH12B-hgtY3-io87N-srg98-KLMNO', 'Key Type': '
Nod32 Anti-Vir (30d trial)'}
>>>

The regex DATE: (\d+)Key Type: (.*?) Key: ((?:\w{5}-){5}\w{5}) matches the date (digits only) and key type (any characters); then it matches a key if it consists of six groups of five alphanumeric characters each, separated by dashes.

answered Dec 24, 2010 at 10:23

Tim Pietzcker

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Ignacio Vazquez-Abrams · Accepted Answer · 2010-12-24 10:23:51Z

1

If you can rely on the headers being the same then you've lucked out.

>>> re.match('DATE:\s+([0-9]{8})\s*Key Type:\s+(.+)\s+Key:\s+((?:[^-]{5}(?:-[^-]{5})*))', 'DATE: 12242010Key Type: Nod32 Anti-Vir (30d trial) Key: a5B2s-sH12B-hgtY3-io87N-srg98-KLMNO').groups()
('12242010', 'Nod32 Anti-Vir (30d trial)', 'a5B2s-sH12B-hgtY3-io87N-srg98-KLMNO')

You may have to get the count of groups in post-processing though, if you ever expect it to change.

answered Dec 24, 2010 at 10:23

Ignacio Vazquez-Abrams

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Hugh Bothwell · Accepted Answer · 2010-12-24 20:45:36Z

1

import re

def strToDict(inStr, keyList, sep=''):
    rxPieces = [pc + sep + '(.*?)' for pc in keyList]
    rx = re.compile(''.join(rxPieces) + '$')
    match = rx.match(inStr)
    return dict(zip(kl, match.groups()))

def isKey(inStr):
    rx = re.compile('(\w{5}-\w{5}-\w{5}-\w{5}-\w{5}-\w{5})')
    return (rx.match(inStr) is not None)

s = "DATE: 12242010Key Type: Nod32 Anti-Vir (30d trial) Key: a5B2s-sH12B-hgtY3-io87N-srg98-KLMNO"
res = strToDict(s, ['DATE','Key Type','Key'], ': ')

returns

{
    'DATE': '12242010',
    'Key': 'a5B2s-sH12B-hgtY3-io87N-srg98-KLMNO',
    'Key Type': 'Nod32 Anti-Vir (30d trial) '
}

and

if isKey(res['Key']):
    print 'Found valid key'

returns True

answered Dec 24, 2010 at 20:45

Hugh Bothwell

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