Regex Expression For a String

Question

I want to split the string in python.

Sample string:

Hi this is ACT I. SCENE 1 and SCENE 2 and this is ACT II. SCENE 1 and SCENE 2 and more

Answer 1

Here is a working script, albeit a bit hackish:

inp = "Hi this is ACT I. SCENE 1 and SCENE 2 and this is ACT II. SCENE 1 and SCENE 2 and more"
parts = re.findall(r'[A-Z]{2,}(?: [A-Z0-9.]+)*|(?![A-Z]{2})\w+(?: (?![A-Z]{2})\w+)*', inp)
print(parts)

This prints:

['Hi this is', 'ACT I. SCENE 1', 'and', 'SCENE 2', 'and this is', 'ACT II. SCENE 1',
 'and', 'SCENE 2', 'and more']

An explanation of the regex logic, which uses an alternation to match one of two cases:

[A-Z]{2,}              match TWO or more capital letters
(?: [A-Z0-9.]+)*       followed by zero or more words, consisting only of
                       capital letters, numbers, or period
|                      OR
(?![A-Z]{2})\w+        match a word which does NOT start with two capital letters
(?: (?![A-Z]{2})\w+)*  then match zero or more similar terms