Reputation: 8067
My script works fine doing this:
images = re.findall("src.\"(\S*?media.tumblr\S*?tumblr_\S*?jpg)", doc)
videos = re.findall("\S*?(http\S*?video_file\S*?tumblr_[a-zA-Z0-9]*)", doc)
However, I believe it is inefficient to search through the whole document twice.
Here's a sample document if it helps: http://pastebin.com/5kRZXjij
I would expect the following output from the above:
images = http://37.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lnmh4tD3sM1qi02clo1_500.jpg
videos = http://bassrx.tumblr.com/video_file/86319903607/tumblr_lo8i76CWSP1qi02cl
Instead it would be better to do something like:
image_and_video_links = re.findall(" <match-image-links-or-video links> ", doc)
How can I combine the two re.findall
lines into one?
I have tried using the |
character but I always fail to match anything. So I'm sure I'm completely confused as to how to use it properly.
Upvotes: 2
Views: 8609
Reputation: 280
As mentioned in the comments, a pipe (|)
should do the trick.
The regular expression
(src.\"(\S*?media.tumblr\S*?tumblr_\S*?jpg))|(\S*?(http\S*?video_file\S*?tumblr_[a-zA-Z0-9]*))
catches either of the two patterns.
Demo on Regex Tester
Upvotes: 6
Reputation: 41848
If you really want efficient...
For starters, I would cut out the \S*?
in the second regex. It serves no purpose apart from an opportunity for lots of backtracking.
src.\"(\S*?media.tumblr\S*?tumblr_\S*?jpg)|(http\S*?video_file\S*?tumblr_[a-zA-Z0-9]*)
Other ideas
You can get rid of the capture groups by using a small lookbehind in the first one, allowing you to get rid of all parentheses and directly matching what you want. Not faster, but tidier:
(?<=src.\")\S*?media.tumblr\S*?tumblr_\S*?jpg|http\S*?video_file\S*?tumblr_[a-zA-Z0-9]*
Do you intend for the periods after src
and media
to mean "any character", or to mean "a literal period"? If the latter, escape them: \.
You can use the re.IGNORECASE
option and get rid of some letters:
(?<=src.\")\S*?media.tumblr\S*?tumblr_\S*?jpg|http\S*?video_file\S*?tumblr_[a-z0-9]*
Upvotes: 1