[Python] Python regex replacement with str.replace. Pattern (wordhypenword) Replacement...

I have the following regex pattern word-word, so

r'\w+\-\w+


I would like to replace it with

r'\w+\s\-\s\w+


Example: I would like to change

hello-friends to hello - friends


I have tried the following with no success

df['mytextcolumn'].str.replace(r'(\\w+)(\\-)(\\w+)',r'(\\w+)(\\s)(\\-)(\\s)(\\w+)')



also tried with re.sub

re.sub(r'\\w+\\-\\w+',r'\\w+\\s\\-\\s\\w+','hello-friends')

but I still get back hello-friends, not hello - friends


I also checked my regex with an online regex matcher for python, and it picks up the patterns correctly, so I am confused why I am unable to replace it within my script.

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