Question

I want to split a Python string on certain patterns but not others. For example, I have the string

Joe, Dave, Professional, Ph.D. and Someone else

I want to split on \sand\s and ,, but not , Ph.D.

How can this be accomplished in Python regex?

Answer 1

You can use:

re.split(r'\s+and\s+|,(?!\s*Ph\.D\.)\s*', 'Joe, Dave, Professional, Ph.D. and Someone else')

Result:

['Joe', 'Dave', 'Professional, Ph.D.', 'Someone else']