Text to word per line + named entity tag in Python

Question

I’m making a Named Entity Recognizer and I’m struggling with putting data into the right format, using Python. What I have is a certain string and a list of the named entities in that text with belonging tags. For example:

text = “Hidden Figures is a 2016 American biographical drama film directed by Theodore Melfi and written by Melfi and Allison Schroeder.”

This string can also be “[[Hidden Figures]] is a 2016 [[American]] biographical drama film directed by [[Theodore Melfi]] and written by [[Melfi]] and [[Allison Schroeder]].” if that makes it easier.

listOfNEsAndTags = [‘Hidden Figures PRO’, 'American LOC’, 'Theodore Melfi PER’, 'Melfi PER’, 'Allison Schroeder PER’]

What I want as output is:

Hidden PRO
Figures PRO
is O
a O
2016 O
American LOC
biographical O
drama O
film O
directed O
by O
Theodore PER
Melfi PER
and O
written O
by O
Melfi PER
and O 
Allison PER
Schroeder PER 
. O

So far I’ve only gotten as far as the following function:

def wordPerLine(text, neplustags): 
    text = re.sub(r"([?!,.]+)", r" \1 ", text) 
    wpl = text.split() 
    output = [] 
    for line in wpl: 
        output.append(line + ” O") 
    return output

Which gives every line the default tag O (which is the tag for non-named entities). How can I make it so that the named entities in the text get the right tag?

Answer 1

This could work, replacing the print with something else and refinement of the regex is needed, but it's a good start.

text = "[[Hidden test Figures]] is, a 2016 [[American]] biographical drama film directed by [[Theodore Melfi]] and written by [[Melfi]] and [[Allison Schroeder]]."

tags = {"Hidden test Figures": "PRO", "American": "LOC", 'Theodore Melfi': "PER", 'Melfi': "PER", 'Allison Schroeder': "PER"}

text = re.sub(r"([?!,.]+)", r" \1", text)

search = ""
inTag = False

for w in text.split(" "):
    outTag = False

    rest = w

    if rest[:2] == "[[":
        rest = rest[2:]
        inTag = True
    if rest[-2:] == "]]":
        rest = rest[:-2]
        outTag = True

    if inTag:
        search += rest
        if outTag:
            val = tags[search]
            for word in search.split():
                print(word + ": " + val)
            inTag = False
            search = ""
        else:
            search += " "
    else:
        print(rest + ": O")

Input:

[[Hidden test Figures]] is, a 2016 [[American]] biographical drama film directed by [[Theodore Melfi]] and written by [[Melfi]] and [[Allison Schroeder]].

Output:

Hidden: PRO
test: PRO
Figures: PRO
is: O
,: O
a: O
2016: O
American: LOC
biographical: O
drama: O
film: O
directed: O
by: O
Theodore: PER
Melfi: PER
and: O
written: O
by: O
Melfi: PER
and: O
Allison: PER
Schroeder: PER
.: O