import re
regex = re.compile(r"^([a-z]).*\s([a-z]+)$", flags=re.MULTILINE)
test_str = ("john smith\n"
"s r peterson\n"
"sandra oh")
subst = "\\1 \\2"
result = regex.sub(subst, test_str)
if result:
print(result)
Please keep in mind that these code samples are automatically generated and are not guaranteed to work. If you find any syntax errors, feel free to submit a bug report. For a full regex reference for Python, please visit: https://docs.python.org/3/library/re.html