Replacing string in a list of strings

Question

I have problem with my code. In this example it should print out The Wind in the Willows, but it does print The Wind In The Willows. I think the problem is that replace function does not execute. I have no idea what's wrong with this code. Please help.

PS. Basic idea of this function is to return title lookalike string with exception (minor_words). Minor_words should be lower case in a title (despite the case if minor_words is the first word in the title)

def title_case(title, minor_words):
 exc = [x for x in title.lower().split() if x in minor_words.lower().split()]
 for string in exc:
 if title.split().index(string) == 0:
 title = title.title()
 else:
 title = title.title().replace(string, string.lower())
 return title
print (title_case('THE WIND IN THE WILLOWS', 'The In'))

Answer 1

def title_case(title, minor_words):
 # lowercase minor_words and make a set for quicker lookups
 minor_set = set(i for i in minor_words.lower().split())
 # tokenize the title by lowercasing
 tokens = title.lower().split()
 # create a new title by capitalizing words that dont belong to minor_set
 new_title = ' '.join(i if i in minor_set else i.capitalize() for i in tokens)
 # Finally return the capitalized title.
 if len(new_title) > 1:
 return new_title[0].upper() + new_title[1:]
 else:
 # Since its just one char, just uppercase it and return it
 return new_title.upper()

Output:

>>> print (title_case('THE WIND IN THE WILLOWS', 'The In'))
The Wind in the Willows

• James K: This doesn't capitalise "willows"
• sisanared: I used the capitalize on the whole string, I fixed it now. Thanks.

Answer 2

Since you assign to title in the loop, you get the value of title is the same as the value assigned to it by the last time through the loop.

I've done this differently. I loop through all the words in the title (not just the exclusions) and title case those that are not excluded.

def title_case(title, minor_words):
 """Title case, excluding minor words, but including the first 
 word"""
 exclusions = minor_words.lower().split()
 words = title.split()
 # Loop over the words, replace each word with either the title
 # case (for first word and words not in the exclusions list) 
 # or the lower case (for excluded words)
 for i, word in enumerate(words):
 if i == 0 or word.lower() not in exclusions:
 words[i] = words[i].title()
 else:
 words[i] = words[i].lower()
 title = " ".join(words)
 return title
print (title_case('THE WIND IN THE WILLOWS', 'The In'))

Answer 3

for x in minor_words.split():
 title = title.replace(x,x.lower())

I'm a little confused as to what exactly you are trying to do(its late for me so I can't think) but that will replace all words in title that are minor_words with a lower case copy. Making the first word capital can be done with title = title.title()[0]+title[1:]

• OneCricketeer: title.title() looks wrong. I'd suggest a different variable name
• Whud: @cricket_007 it was throwing me off too but its how OP had his code so I left it.