How to replace multiple overlapping patterns with regex?

Question

I want to replace all occurrences of && with and.

For example, x&& && && should become x&& and and.

I tried re.sub(' && ', ' and ', 'x&& && && '), but it didn't work, the first && already consumed the whitespace so the second one didn't match.

Then I thought of non-capturing group and tried but failed again.

How can I solve this problem?

Answer 1

You could use non-word boundaries here.

>>> re.sub(r'\B&&\B', 'and', 'x&& && &&')
'x&& and and'

Answer 2

(?:^|(?<=\s))&&(?=\s|$)

Use lookarounds.Do not consume space just assert.See demo.

https://regex101.com/r/sS2dM8/39

re.sub('(?:^|(?<=\s))&&(?=\s|$)', 'and', 'x&& && &&')

Output:'x&& and and'