Question

I want to replace the character & with and, but only when & is by itself. I try the following in Python 2.7.3:

import re
re.sub('&', 'and', '& r&b')

I get and randb, but what I want is and r&b.

re.sub('\b&\b', 'and', '& r&b')

Doesn’t work either. Any suggestions? Also, what’s the expression if I just wanted a unique combination of normal characters and special characters, like if I want a&b, but not a&bc?

Couldn’t find the answer in similar questions, so thanks in advance!

Answer 1

Not knowing what “by itself” means. Btw, nobody knows what that means in regex.

Ror your specific example,

search (^| )&( |$)
replace $1and$2

Don’t know Python though.

Edit: In Python

import re
re.sub('(^| )&( |$)', r'\1and\2', '& r&b')