Q:

Pig Latin- keep non-letters python

I am currently writing a pig Latin code and it requires all the non-letters to be ignored ie left in the same place of the word. For instance, Tom's would be om'sTay. So I deleted all non-alphabetic characters using:
    word = re.sub('[^A-Za-z]', '', word)
did the pig latin code and I want to bring the non-letters back.
Not sure how to bring back the non-letters to the same place of the changed word.

A:

In[2]: def pig_latinize(word):
  ...:     cluster_dex = 0
  ...:     vowels = set('AEIOUaeiou')
  ...:     for i, char in enumerate(word, start=1):
  ...:         if not char.isalpha() or char in vowels:
  ...:             break
  ...:         cluster_dex = i
  ...:     if cluster_dex == 0:
  ...:         suffix = 'hay'
  ...:     elif cluster_dex == len(word):
  ...:         cluster_dex = 1
  ...:         suffix = 'way'
  ...:     else:
  ...:         suffix = 'ay'
  ...:     return '{}{}{}'.format(word[cluster_dex:], word[:cluster_dex], suffix)
  ...: 
  ...: 
  ...: def pig_latin(words):
  ...:     return ' '.join(pig_latinize(word) for word in words.split())
  ...: 
In[3]: pig_latin("Tom's") == "om'sTay"
Out[3]: True
In[4]: pig_latin('the ap!ple is green') == 'ethay ap!plehay ishay eengray'
Out[4]: True
In[5]: pig_latin("Kate's care") == "ate'sKay arecay"
Out[5]: True
In[6]: pig_latin('myth') == 'ythmway'
Out[6]: True
In[7]: pig_latin('cry') == 'rycway'
Out[7]: True

EDIT:
This shows a possible way of turning these functions into the class from the description you gave
>>> class PigLatin(object):
...     VOWELS = set('AEIOUaeiou')
...
...     def __init__(self, to_convert):
...         self.convert_words(to_convert)
...
...     def convert_words(self, to_convert):
...         if not isinstance(to_convert, list):
...             # if to_convert is a string, split into separate words
...             to_convert = to_convert.split()
...         self.pig_latin = ' '.join(
...             self.p_latin_converter(word) for word in to_convert)
...
...     def p_latin_converter(self, word):
...         cluster_dex = 0
...         for i, char in enumerate(word, start=1):
...             if not char.isalpha() or char in self.VOWELS:
...                 break
...             cluster_dex = i
...         if cluster_dex == 0:
...             suffix = 'hay'
...         elif cluster_dex == len(word):
...             cluster_dex = 1
...             suffix = 'way'
...         else:
...             suffix = 'ay'
...         return '{}{}{}'.format(word[cluster_dex:], word[:cluster_dex], suffix)
...

# *** An object of this method initializes the string it wants to 
# convert when it is created. ***
>>> p = PigLatin("Tom's")  # initialize with a sting
# pig_latin attribute is then set with the converted text
>>> p.pig_latin == "om'sTay"
True

# *** Further, the class should have a method that allows the string to be
# modified to perform another conversion. ***
>>> p.convert_words('the ap!ple is green')  # modify the pig_latin attribute
>>> p.pig_latin == 'ethay ap!plehay ishay eengray'
True

# *** build a pigLatin_class that works with strings and lists and has a
# method to convert a string into pig latin. ***
>>> p.convert_words(['myth', 'cry'])  # use a list of strings
>>> p.pig_latin == 'ythmway rycway'
True

# *** The set of VOWELS can be defined as a static attribute of the class. ***
>>> p.VOWELS
{'E', 'e', 'A', 'O', 'a', 'i', 'u', 'I', 'U', 'o'}

# *** The class pigLatin should be based on the basic object datatype. ***
>>> isinstance(p, object)  # inherits from object "class PigLatin(object):"
True

# *** method pLatin_converter can be used. ***
>>> p.pig_latin  # current pig_latin attribute
'ythmway rycway'
# returns a word without modifying the pig_latin attribute
>>> p.p_latin_converter("Kate's care")
"ate's careKay"
# show that the pig_latin attribute wasn't modified after the above call
>>> p.pig_latin
'ythmway rycway'

