How to replace multiple characters with different input on same string python

Question

I am attempting to replace multiple letters within a string, I want the vowels to be replaced by the users input, and my current code replaces all the vowels with the same letters, however I want to replace the vowels with different user inputs. Below is an example of what I would like, and the code below that.

What I want

input1 = zz
input2 = xx
input3 = yolo
output = yzzlxx

What I have

input1 = zz
input2 = xx
input3 = yolo
output = yzzlzz

Here is my code.

def vwl():
 syl1 = input("Enter your first syllable: ")
 syl2 = input("Enter the second syllable: ")
 translate = input("Enter word to replace vowels in: ")
 for ch in ['a','e','i','o','u']:
 if ch in translate:
 translate=translate.replace(ch,syl1,)
 for ch in ['a','e','i','o','u']:
 if syl1 in translate:
 translate=translate.replace(ch,syl2,)
 print (translate)

• Mark Hildreth: Ryan: Is this a homework question that you are doing? If so, please use the "homework" tag.
• DSM: @MarkHildreth: actually, the homework tag has recently been deprecated. See here.
• martineau: What determines which inputs replace which vowels?

Answer 1

The method replace takes an additional argument count:

translate=translate.replace(ch,syl1,1)
break # finish the for loop for syl1

will only replace the first instance of ch and break will ensure you don't replace any subsequent vowels with syl1.

Similarly:

translate=translate.replace(ch,syl2,1)
break # finish the for loop

• mgilson: This doesn't help if the user inputs yoli (he'll still get yxxlxx).
• mgilson: it's a bit weird of a requirement ... (using count on str.replace was my first intuition as well)
• mgilson: Yes, I think that does it. (I'm glad you didn't delete your answer. I like to avoid re when possible) (+1).

Answer 2

You can use regular expressions:

translate = re.sub('a|e|i|o|u',input1,translate,count=1)
translate = re.sub('a|e|i|o|u',input2,translate,count=1)

Example:

>>> input1 = 'zz'
>>> input2 = 'xx'
>>> translate = 'yolo'
>>> import re
>>> translate = re.sub('a|e|i|o|u',input1,translate,count=1)
>>> translate
'yzzlo'
>>> translate = re.sub('a|e|i|o|u',input2,translate,count=1)
>>> translate
'yzzlxx'