CODEWITHSUNDEEP
python-re
jub
jub

Reputation: 417

regex match after decimal number (python re)

Looking to cleave off trailing text, if any, from a string that has '@' immediately followed by a decimal number using re.split in Python. Examples:

myString1 = 'random text @2.25 possibly more text'

myString2 = 'random text @-1.50 possibly more text'

myString3 = 'random text @-.50'

Desired output:

1: 'random text @2.25'

2: 'random text @-1.50'

3: 'random text @-.50'

What I tried:

test = re.split('(?<=@[0-9]+.[0-9]+)', myString)[0]

?<= gets me match after. Then @[0-9] gets me the ampersand and first number match. Since the number could be more than 1 digit long before the decimal point, I add the '+', as in [0-9]+ and this fails with a 'look behind' error.

Is what I'm trying to do possible with re.split?

Upvotes: 0

Views: 92

Answers (1)

Tim Biegeleisen
Tim Biegeleisen

Reputation: 521194

Rather than trying to split here, I would instead do an re.search for the appropriate pattern:

inp = ["random text @2.25 possibly more text", "random text @-1.50 possibly more text", "random text @-.50"]
output = [re.search(r'^.*?@-?\d*(?:\.\d+)?', x).group() for x in inp]
print(output)  # ['random text @2.25', 'random text @-1.50', 'random text @-.50']

Here is an explanation of the regex pattern:

  • ^ from the start of the string
  • .*? match all content, leading up to the nearest
  • @
  • -? optional minus sign
  • \d* zero or more digits
  • (?:\.\d+)? optional decimal component

Upvotes: 1

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