expand_contractions.py

def expand_contractions(text, contraction_mapping=CONTRACTION_MAP):
    
    contractions_pattern = re.compile('({})'.format('|'.join(contraction_mapping.keys())), 
                                      flags=re.IGNORECASE|re.DOTALL)
    def expand_match(contraction):
        match = contraction.group(0)
        first_char = match[0]
        expanded_contraction = contraction_mapping.get(match)\
                                if contraction_mapping.get(match)\
                                else contraction_mapping.get(match.lower())                       
        expanded_contraction = first_char+expanded_contraction[1:]
        return expanded_contraction
        
    expanded_text = contractions_pattern.sub(expand_match, text)
    expanded_text = re.sub("'", "", expanded_text)
    return expanded_text