Is there a Python function for repeating a string if the string contains a key substring?

Question

Say I have a simple list such as "apples, bananasx2, orangesx3, pears."

Is there a function that will convert this into "apples, bananas, bananas, oranges, oranges, oranges, pears"?

I've tried to write an if loop but I can't figure out how to identify the number and also repeat the string by that number. This info is currently in dataframe columns but it doesn't have to be.

Answer 1

Not sure if thats the fastest, but you could use:

import re    
l = []
for elem in ["apples", "bananasx2", "orangesx3", "pears"]:
    if re.search(".*x\d", elem):
        word, occurrence = elem.rsplit("x", 1)
        l += [word] * int(occurrence)
    else:
        l.append(elem)