CODEWITHSUNDEEP
pythonregex
krb
krb

Reputation: 16325

Matching a simple string using Regex?

If I have a string like this:

*select 65* description

How could I extract the bit after the asterisk and the number using regex in Python? I need something that would yield select and 65 from the above string.

All of them follow this convention:

*[lowercase specifier] [integer]* description

Upvotes: 0

Views: 161

Answers (3)

Russell Borogove
Russell Borogove

Reputation: 19047

Python's regex library is powerful, but I'm personally fond of using split() for lighter-weight problems:

>>> s = "*select 65* description"
>>> s.split('*')
['', 'select 65', ' description']
>>> s.split('*')[1].split()
['select', '65']

Upvotes: 1

glglgl
glglgl

Reputation: 91069

import re

and then either

m = re.match(r"^\*([a-z]+)\s+([0-9]+)\*\s+(.*)", "*select 65* description")
print m.groups()

or

r = re.compile(r"^\*([a-z]+)\s+([0-9]+)\*\s+(.*)")
m = r.match("*select 65* description")
print m.groups()

depending on the number of matches you want to make. The former is better suited for one or few matches, the latter better for many, because the regex is compiled in a form which is better suited for multiple executions.

Upvotes: 1

icktoofay
icktoofay

Reputation: 129039

You could use this regular expression:

^\*([a-z]+)\s+([0-9]+)\*

In Python, you can match regular expressions with the re module. Thus:

import re

my_string = """*select 65* description"""
match = re.match(r"^\*([a-z]+)\s+([0-9]+)\*", my_string)
specifier = match.group(1)
integer = int(match.group(2))

Upvotes: 4

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