How to expand a string within a string in python? -

i have string looks this:

1 | xxx | xxx | xxx | yyy*a*b*c | xxx 

i want expand yyy*a*b*c part string looks this:

1 | xxx | xxx | xxx | yyya | yyyb | yyyc | xxx 

i have big file delimiter between these strings. have parsed file dictionary looks this:

{'1': ['xxx' , 'xxx', 'xxx', 'yyy*a*b*c', 'xxx' ], '2': ['xxx*d*e*f', ...,  'zzz'], etc} 

and need have yyy*a*b*c , xxx*d*e*f part replaced additional items in list.

how can in python 3? should expand in string before parse dictionary or after parse dictionary (and how)?

you can using split , simple list comprehension:

def expand_input(input):     temp = input.split("*")     return [temp[0]+x x in temp[1:]]  print(expand_input("yyy*a*b*c")) >>> ['yyya', 'yyyb', 'yyyc']