python replace first occurrence in string
# string replace() function perfectly solves this problem:
# string.replace(s, old, new[, maxreplace])
# Return a copy of string s with all occurrences of substring old replaced
# by new. If the optional argument maxreplace is given, the first maxreplace
# occurrences are replaced.
>>> u'longlongTESTstringTEST'.replace('TEST', '?', 1)
u'longlong?stringTEST'