Parse string to association

Question

Here is a string, which I call data:

(1)  Turkey   -   Italy         @ Stadio Olimpico, Rome
(2)  Wales    -   Switzerland   @ Olympic Stadium, Baku

I can process it as follows:

StringReplace[
  "(" ~~ id__ ~~ ")" ~~ Whitespace ~~ Shortest[team1__] ~~ 
    Whitespace ~~ "-" ~~ Whitespace ~~ Shortest[team2__] ~~ 
    Whitespace ~~ "@ " ~~ venue__ :> <|"id" -> ToExpression[id], 
    "team1" -> team1, "team2" -> team2, "venue" -> venue|>] /@ 
 ImportString[data, "Lines"]

But the result of each is a StringExpression:

(* {StringExpression[<|"id" -> 1, "team1" -> "Turkey", 
   "team2" -> "Italy", "venue" -> "Stadio Olimpico, Rome"|>], 
 StringExpression[<|"id" -> 2, "team1" -> "Wales", 
   "team2" -> "Switzerland", "venue" -> "Olympic Stadium, Baku"|>]} *)

I can use Identity@@@ to remove StringExpression, but the fact that StringReplace gives me such a weird output makes me think that it must not be right tool for the job. Is there a better way?

Answer 1

Regular expressions are useful:

data = "(1)  Turkey   -   Italy         @ Stadio Olimpico, Rome
(2)  Wales    -   Switzerland   @ Olympic Stadium, Baku"

Association @@@ 
 StringCases[data, 
  RegularExpression[
    "\\(([0-9])\\)\\s+(\\w+)[\\s-]+(\\w+)[\\s@]+(\\S+.+)"] -> 
     {"id" ->"$1", "team1" -> "$2", "team2" -> "$3", "venue" -> "$4"}]

{<|"id" -> "1", "team1" -> "Turkey", "team2" -> "Italy", "venue" -> "Stadio Olimpico, Rome"|>, <|"id" -> "2", "team1" -> "Wales", "team2" -> "Switzerland", "venue" -> "Olympic Stadium, Baku"|>}

Alternatively,

StringCases[#, 
    "(" ~~ id__ ~~ ")" ~~ Whitespace ~~ Shortest[team1__] ~~ 
      Whitespace ~~ "-" ~~ Whitespace ~~ Shortest[team2__] ~~ 
      Whitespace ~~ "@ " ~~ venue__
     :> <|"id" -> id, "team1" -> team1, "team2" -> team2, "venue" -> venue|>][[1]] & /@ ImportString[data, "Lines"]

{<|"id" -> "1", "team1" -> "Turkey", "team2" -> "Italy", "venue" -> "Stadio Olimpico, Rome"|>, <|"id" -> "2", "team1" -> "Wales", "team2" -> "Switzerland", "venue" -> "Olympic Stadium, Baku"|>}

Answer 2

You can also use StringSplit + StringTrim:

values = StringTrim /@ StringSplit[ImportString[data, "Lines"], "(" | ")" | "-" | "@"];

keys = {"id", "team1", "team2", "venue"};

AssociationThread[keys, #] & /@ values

{<|"id" -> "1", "team1" -> "Turkey", "team2" -> "Italy",
   "venue" -> "Stadio Olimpico, Rome"|>,
 <|"id" -> "2", "team1" -> "Wales", "team2" -> "Switzerland", 
   "venue" -> "Olympic Stadium, Baku"|>}

Answer 3

StringReplace returns a String or StringExpression.

If you want to return something else use StringCases.