strutil: Add 'nym' function

Helper function for dealing with names while avoiding pesky
things like quoting, spaces, and case sensitivity

tests/test_strutil_nym.py

@@ -0,0 +1,21 @@
+#!/usr/bin/env python
+
+""" Tests for the nym function from strutil module """
+
+from toolchest.strutil import nym
+
+
+def test_identity():
+    assert nym('abc') == 'abc'
+
+
+def test_spaces():
+    assert nym('abc def') == 'abc_def'
+
+
+def test_tabs():
+    assert nym('abc\tdef') == 'abc_def'
+
+
+def test_lowercase():
+    assert nym('aBcDeF') == 'abcdef'

toolchest/strutil.py

@@ -30,3 +30,24 @@ def regex_match(pattern, arg):
     if re.match(pattern, arg) is not None:
         return True
     return False
+
+
+def nym(arg):
+    '''
+    This is for allowing case and quote flexibility for strings when
+    searching dictionaries or other data sets based on user input (esp.
+    from the command line) where the likelihood of key collisions is
+    low. For example, if we want to search a dictionary, we'd check the
+    nym of the value provided with the nym of the key to see if they
+    match. This should not be used when likelihood of collisions is high.
+    (Origin: Greek word meaning "name")
+
+    Parameters:
+        arg (string): A string to create the nym for
+
+    Returns:
+        ret (string): A lower-case string with whitespace swapped to _
+    '''
+    ret = arg.lower().replace(' ', '_')
+    ret = ret.replace('\t', '_')
+    return ret