CODEWITHSUNDEEP
python-3.xregex
paultop6
paultop6

Reputation: 3761

Match multiple instances of pattern in parenthesis

For the following string, is it possible for regex to return the comma delimited matches within the square brackets?

"root.path.definition[id=1234,test=blah,scope=A,B,C,D]"

Expected output would be:

["id=1234", "test=blah", "scope=A,B,C,D"]

The closest I have gotten so far is the following:

(?<=\[)(.*?)(?=\])

But this will only return one match for everything within the square brackets.

Upvotes: 1

Views: 116

Answers (1)

The fourth bird
The fourth bird

Reputation: 163267

One option is to use the re module and first get the part between the square brackets using a capturing group and a negated character class.

\[([^][]*)]

That part will match:

  • \[ Match [ char
  • ([^][]*) Capture group 1, match 0+ times any char other than [ and ]
  • ] A [ char

Then get the separate parts by matching the key value pairs separated by a comma.

\w+=.*?(?=,\w+=|$)

That part will match:

  • \w+ Match 1+ word characters
  • = Match literally
  • .*?(?=,\w+=|$) Match as least as possible chars until you either encounter a comma, 1+ word characters and = or the end of the string

For example

import re

s = "root.path.definition[id=1234,test=blah,scope=A,B,C,D]"

m = re.search(r"\[([^][]*)]", s)
if m:
    print(re.findall(r"\w+=.*?(?=,\w+=|$)", m.group(1)))

Python demo

Output

['id=1234', 'test=blah', 'scope=A,B,C,D']

If you can make use of the regex module, this might also be an option matching the keys and values using lookarounds to assert the [ and ]

(?<=\[[^][]*)\w+=.*?(?=,\w+=|])(?=[^][]*])

For example

import regex

s = "root.path.definition[id=1234,test=blah,scope=A,B,C,D]"

print(regex.findall(r"(?<=\[[^][]*)\w+=.*?(?=,\w+=|])(?=[^][]*])", s))

Output

['id=1234', 'test=blah', 'scope=A,B,C,D']

Regex demo | Python demo

Upvotes: 2

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