Question

what’s best solution using regex, to remove special characters from the begin and the end of every word.

“as-df– as-df- as-df (as-df) ‘as-df’ asdf-asdf) (asd-f asdf’ asd-f’ -asdf- %asdf%s asdf& $asdf$ +asdf+ asdf++ asdf””

the output should be:

“as-df– as-df- as-df (as-df) as-df asdf-asdf) (asd-f asdf’ asd-f’ asdf %asdf%s asdf& asdf asdf asdf++ asdf””

if the special character at the begin match with the end, remove it

i am learning about regex.
[only regex]

Answer 1

import re
a = ("as-df-- as-df- as-df (as-df) 'as-df' asdf-asdf) (asd-f"
     "asdf' asd-f' -asdf- %asdf%s asdf& $asdf$ +asdf+ asdf++ asdf''")
b = re.sub(r"((?<=\s)|\A)(?P<chr>[-()+%&'$])([^\s]*)(?P=chr)((?=\s)|\Z)",r"\3",a)
print b

Gives:

as-df-- as-df- as-df (as-df) as-df asdf-asdf) (asd-f
asdf' asd-f' asdf %asdf%s asdf& asdf asdf asdf++ asdf''

Getting non-identical characters to work is tricker (), [], {}