from __future__ import print_function, division import re from pprint import pformat as pf def parse(pstring): pstring = re.split(r"""(?:(\w+\s*=\s*\([^)]*\))|(\w+\s*[=:]\w+)|(\w+))""", pstring) pstring = [item.strip() for item in pstring if item and item.strip()] print(pstring) items = [] for item in pstring: if ":" in item: key, seperator, value = item.partition(':') elif "=" in item: key, seperator, value = item.partition('=') else: seperator = None if seperator: if '(' in value: assert value.startswith("("), "Invalid token" assert value.endswith(")"), "Invalid token" value = value[1:-1] # Get rid of the parenthesis values = re.split(r"""\s+|,""", value) value = [value.strip() for value in values if value.strip()] term = dict(key=key, seperator=seperator, value=value) else: term = dict(search_term = item) items.append(term) print(pf(items)) return(items) parse("foo=(3 2 1)") parse("shh") parse("shh grep") parse("LRS=(9 99 Chr4 122 155) cisLRS=(9 999 10)") parse("sal1 LRS=(9 99 Chr4 122 155) sal2 cisLRS=(9 999 10)") parse("sal1 sal3 LRS=(9 99 Chr4 122 155) wiki=bar sal2 go:foobar cisLRS=(9 999 10)") parse("sal1 LRS=(9 99 Chr4 122 155) wiki=bar sal2 go:foobar cisLRS=(9, 999, 10)")