Join Author Names With First Ones Separated By Comma And Last One By "and"

I'm completely new to Python and have a list of names separated by \and, which I need to join separating the first ones with comma and the last one by 'and'. However if there are m

Solution 1:

Start with splitting out the names:

names = [name.strip() for name in authors.split(r'\and')]  # assuming a raw \ here, not the escape code \a.

Then rejoin based on the length:

if len(names) >= 4:
    authors = '{} et al.'.format(names[0])
elif len(names) > 1:
    authors = '{} and {}'.format(', '.join(names[:-1]), names[-1])
else:
    authors = names[0]

This works for entries with just one author too; we just reassign the name to authors.

Combined into a function:

def reformat_authors(authors):
    names = [name.strip() for name in authors.split(r'\and')]
    if len(names) >= 4:
        return '{} et al.'.format(names[0])
    if len(names) > 1:
        return '{} and {}'.format(', '.join(names[:-1]), names[-1])
    return names[0]

with a demo:

>>> reformat_authors(r'John Bar \and Tom Foo \and Sam Foobar \and Ron Barfoo')
'John Bar et al.'
>>> reformat_authors(r'John Bar \and Tom Foo \and Sam Foobar')
'John Bar, Tom Foo and Sam Foobar'
>>> reformat_authors(r'John Bar \and Tom Foo')
'John Bar and Tom Foo'
>>> reformat_authors(r'John Bar')
'John Bar'

Solution 2:

Let's split this problems into parts:

First, get a list of the individual authors:

>>> authors = 'John Bar \\and Tom Foo \\and Sam Foobar \\and Ron Barfoo'
>>> authorlist = [item.strip() for item in authors.split("\\and")]
>>> authorlist
['John Bar', 'Tom Foo', 'Sam Foobar', 'Ron Barfoo']

Now check for the number of entries in the list and act accordingly:

>>> if len(authorlist) > 3:
...     print("{0} et al.".format(authorlist[0]))
... elif len(authorlist) == 1:
...     print(authorlist[0])
... else:
...     print("{0} and {1}".format(", ".join(authorlist[:-1]), authorlist[-1]))
...
John Bar et al.

Solution 3:

def natural_join(val, cnj="and"):
    if isinstance(val, list):
        return " ".join((", ".join(val[0:-1]), "%s %s" % (cnj, val[-1]))) if len(val) > 1 else val[0]
    else:
        return val

natural_join(['pierre'])
# 'pierre'

natural_join(['pierre', 'paul'])
# 'pierre and paul'

natural_join(['pierre', 'paul', 'jacques'])
# 'pierre, paul and jacques'

natural_join(['pierre', 'paul', 'jacques'], cnj="et")
# 'pierre, paul et jacques'

Solution 4:

Looks like you should check out the string.split method. You've got a few cases here: either there's one name, there are 2-3 names, or there are 4+ names. Each of these needs separate handling, so just figure out what needs to be done in each case:

# First split up the names by your specified delimiter (and strip off whitespace)
names = [name.strip() for name in authors.split(r'\and')]

# Now deal with your three cases for formatting.
if len(names) == 1:
    print names[0]
elif len(names) < 4:
    print ', '.join(names[:-1])+' and '+names[-1]
else:
    print names[0]+' et al.'

Solution 5:

First you should split your tring, to get the names using split.

parts = author.split(' \and ')

Then You apply your conditions:

1. If there are 4 or more names, return the first name + ' el at'

   if len(parts) >= 4:
       return parts[0]+' et al'
   

2. If there are more than 1 names, join them with a ', ' and the last one with a ' and '

   elif len(parts) > 1:
       return ' and '.join([', '.join(parts[:-1]), parts[-1]])
   

3. If there is only one name, return that name.

   return parts[0] 
   

The final function:

def my_func(author):
    parts = author.split(' \and ')
    if len(parts) >= 4:
        return parts[0]+' et al'
    elif len(parts) > 1:
        return ' and '.join([', '.join(parts[:-1]), parts[-1]])
    return parts[0]