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Python import re and use regex

Replace the word Boy/Girl or boy/girl with Man/Woman.
Boy/Girl or boy/girl should be replaced with Man/Woman if the word prior to it is a name (starts with a capital letter)

User Rakesh KR
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1 Answer

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Final answer:

The task is to replace 'Boy/Girl' with 'Man/Woman' in a text using Python and regex, given that the preceding word is a name. The re.sub() function along with a lambda for case-specific replacement can be used for this purpose.

Step-by-step explanation:

The question involves using Python and the regex (regular expressions) module re to replace certain words based on their context within a text. Specifically, the task is to replace the words 'Boy/Girl' or 'boy/girl' with 'Man/Woman' when the preceding word is a capitalised name, indicating that it could be a personal name.

The goal is to modify the text while being aware of the importance of avoiding gender bias and possibly using more inclusive language.

To achieve this in Python with regex, you could use the re.sub() function with an appropriate regex pattern. The pattern would need to capture a word that starts with a capital letter (a name) followed by the word 'Boy' or 'Girl' with any case variation. Within the replacement string, you can reference captured groups from the pattern.

Here is an example of how this could be implemented:

import re

text = 'Alice Boy and Bob girl went to the park.'
pattern = r'([A-Z][a-z]*)\s(Boy|boy|Girl|girl)'
replacement = lambda m: f'{m.group(1)} Man' if m.group(2).lower() == 'boy' else f'{m.group(1)} Woman'
new_text = re.sub(pattern, replacement, text)
print(new_text)

This will print 'Alice Man and Bob Woman went to the park.' as the modified string. The lambda function is used to determine the appropriate replacement based on the match's case.

User QuickNick
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