Regex replace "(x)" with "-x" only next to a number

Question

How do I change all parenthesis in a string to a minus sign only when the next character immediately following ( is a number?

input: foo (4,301) bar blah (4)% blah (USD)

output: foo -4,301 bar blah -4% blah (USD)

everything that I have found is relating to getting a number and not changing the string...

num = -int(test.translate(None,"(),"))

that's not what I want

See [Python - Regular expressions get numbers between parenthesis](https://stackoverflow.com/questions/36632977/python-regular-expressions-get-numbers-between-parenthesis) — Wiktor Stribiżew, Jul 04 '18 at 11:33
@WiktorStribiżew. that doesn't work. I'm not trying to extract values. — jason, Jul 04 '18 at 11:34
@Sajuuk. Bro, try doing a "basic google search" on my question and see what you get. Maybe you didn't read the question carefully enough. — jason, Jul 04 '18 at 11:39
@Sajuuk I have changed the title to `Regex`, but I'm doing it in python and not in other languages... how is it not a python question? — jason, Jul 04 '18 at 11:44

score 1 · Accepted Answer · answered Jul 04 '18 at 11:36

1

Using re.sub

Ex:

import re
s = "foo (4,301) bar blah (4)% blah (USD)"
print( re.sub(r"\((\d*,?\d*)\)", r"-\1", s) )

Output:

foo -4,301 bar blah -4% blah (USD)

answered Jul 04 '18 at 11:36

Rakesh

score 0 · Answer 2 · answered Jul 04 '18 at 11:37

0

import re
s = 'foo (4,301) bar blah (4)% blah (USD)'
re.sub(r'\((\d[^\)]*)\)', r'-\1', s)
# 'foo -4,301 bar blah -4% blah (USD)'

answered Jul 04 '18 at 11:37

Sunitha

This will replace `(3 blind mice)` with `-3 blind mice` - are you sure that's the right thing to do? – NickD Jul 06 '18 at 16:45
OP had said `change all parenthesis in a string to a minus sign only when the next character immediately following ( is a number`. So I think, thats the right thing to do – Sunitha Jul 06 '18 at 16:52
You are right: the OP did say that. But I'm almost certain that that's *not* what was really wanted: the specification was incomplete. – NickD Jul 06 '18 at 16:58
I can just answer based on what was specified. Neither me, nor you can speculate on what the OP actually wants – Sunitha Jul 06 '18 at 17:05

2 Answers2