regex - Extracting name as first name last name in python

Question

I have a text file with lines as:

Acosta, Christina, M.D. is a heart doctor

Alissa Russo, M.D. is a heart doctor

is there a way to convert below line:

Acosta, Christina, M.D. is a heart doctor

to

Christina Acosta, M.D. is a heart doctor

Expected Output:

Christina Acosta, M.D. is a heart doctor
Alissa Russo, M.D. is a heart doctor

Answer 1

You can use the follow regex to group the first and last names and substitute them in reverse order without the comma:

import re
data = '''Acosta, Christina, M.D. is a heart doctor
Alissa Russo, M.D. is a heart doctor'''
print(re.sub(r"([a-z'-]+), ([a-z'-]+)(?=,s*M.D.)", r'2 1', data, flags=re.IGNORECASE))

This outputs:

Christina Acosta, M.D. is a heart doctor
Alissa Russo, M.D. is a heart doctor