All the examples I've found on stack overflow are too complicated for me to reverse engineer.
Consider this toy example
s = "asdfasd a_b dsfd"
I want s = "asdfasd a'b dsfd"
That is: find two characters separated by an underscore and replace that underscore with an apostrophe
Attempt:
re.sub("[a-z](_)[a-z]","'",s)
# "asdfasd ' dsfd"
I thought the () were supposed to solve this problem?
Even more confusing is the fact that it seems that we successfully found the character we want to replace:
re.findall("[a-z](_)[a-z]",s)
#['_']
why doesn't this get replaced?
Thanks
Use look-ahead and look-behind patterns:
re.sub("(?<=[a-z])_(?=[a-z])","'",s)
Look ahead/behind patterns have zero width and thus do not replace anything.
UPD:
The problem was that re.sub will replace the whole matched expression, including the preceding and the following letter.
re.findall was still matching the whole expression, but it also had a group (the parenthesis inside), which you observed. The whole match was still a_b
lookahead/lookbehind expressions check that the search is preceded/followed by a pattern, but do not include it into the match.
another option was to create several groups, and put those groups into the replacement: re.sub("([a-z])_([a-z])", r"\1'\2", s)
When using re.sub, the text to keep must be captured, the text to remove should not.
Use
re.sub(r"([a-z])_(?=[a-z])",r"\1'",s)
See proof.
EXPLANATION
NODE EXPLANATION
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
( group and capture to \1:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
[a-z] any character of: 'a' to 'z'
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
) end of \1
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
_ '_'
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
(?= look ahead to see if there is:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
[a-z] any character of: 'a' to 'z'
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
) end of look-ahead
Python code:
import re
s = "asdfasd a_b dsfd"
print(re.sub(r"([a-z])_(?=[a-z])",r"\1'",s))
Output:
asdfasd a'b dsfd
The re.sub will replace everything it matched .
There's a more general way to solve your problem , and you do not need to re-modify your regular expression.
Code below:
import re
s = 'Data: year=2018, monthday=1, month=5, some other text'
reg = r"year=(\d{4}), monthday=(\d{1}), month=(\d{1})"
r = "am_replace_str"
def repl(match):
_reg = "|".join(match.groups())
return re.sub(_reg, r,match.group(0)) if _reg else r
#
re.sub(reg,repl, s)
output: 'Data: year=am_replace_str, monthday=am_replace_str, month=am_replace_str, some other text'
Of course, if your case does not contain groups , your code may like this :
import re
s = 'Data: year=2018, monthday=1, month=5, some other text'
reg = r"year=(\d{4}), monthday=(\d{1}), month=(\d{1})"
r = "am_replace_str"
def repl(match):
_reg = "|".join(match.groups())
return re.sub(_reg, r,match.group(0))
#
re.sub(reg,repl, s)
Related
How can I replace a substring between page1/ and _type-A with 222.6 in the below-provided l string?
l = 'https://homepage.com/home/page1/222.6 a_type-A/go'
replace_with = '222.6'
Expected result:
https://homepage.com/home/page1/222.6_type-A/go
I tried:
import re
re.sub('page1/.*?_type-A','',l, flags=re.DOTALL)
But it also removes page1/ and _type-A.
You may use re.sub like this:
import re
l = 'https://homepage.com/home/page1/222.6 a_type-A/go'
replace_with = '222.6'
print (re.sub(r'(?<=page1/).*?(?=_type-A)', replace_with, l))
Output:
https://homepage.com/home/page1/222.6_type-A/go
RegEx Demo
RegEx Breakup:
(?<=page1/): Lookbehind to assert that we have page1/ at previous position
.*?: Match 0 or more of any string (lazy)
(?=_type-A): Lookahead to assert that we have _type-A at next position
You can use
import re
l = 'https://'+'homepage.com/home/page1/222.6 a_type-A/go'
replace_with = '222.6'
print (re.sub('(page1/).*?(_type-A)',fr'\g<1>{replace_with}\2',l, flags=re.DOTALL))
Output: https://homepage.com/home/page1/222.6_type-A/go
See the Python demo online
Note you used an empty string as the replacement argument. In the above snippet, the parts before and after .*? are captured and \g<1> refers to the first group value, and \2 refers to the second group value from the replacement pattern. The unambiguous backreference form (\g<X>) is used to avoid backreference issues since there is a digit right after the backreference.
Since the replacement pattern contains no backslashes, there is no need preprocessing (escaping) anything in it.
This works:
import re
l = 'https://homepage.com/home/page1/222.6 a_type-A/go'
pattern = r"(?<=page1/).*?(?=_type)"
replace_with = '222.6'
s = re.sub(pattern, replace_with, l)
print(s)
The pattern uses the positive lookahead and lookback assertions, ?<= and ?=. A match only occurs if a string is preceded and followed by the assertions in the pattern, but does not consume them. Meaning that re.sub looks for a string with page1/ in front and _type behind it, but only replaces the part in between.
I am using python.
The pattern is:
re.compile(r'^(.+?)-?.*?\(.+?\)')
The text like:
text1 = 'TVTP-S2(xxxx123123)'
text2 = 'TVTP(xxxx123123)'
I expect to get TVTP
Another option to match those formats is:
^([^-()]+)(?:-[^()]*)?\([^()]*\)
Explanation
^ Start of string
([^-()]+) Capture group 1, match 1+ times any character other than - ( and )
(?:-[^()]*)? As the - is excluded from the first part, optionally match - followed by any char other than ( and )
\([^()]*\) Match from ( till ) without matching any parenthesis between them
Regex demo | Python demo
Example
import re
regex = r"^([^-()]+)(?:-[^()]*)?\([^()]*\)"
s = ("TVTP-S2(xxxx123123)\n"
"TVTP(xxxx123123)\n")
print(re.findall(regex, s, re.MULTILINE))
Output
['TVTP', 'TVTP']
This regex works:
pattern = r'^([^-]+).*\(.+?\)'
>>> re.findall(pattern, 'TVTP-S2(xxxx123123)')
['TVTP']
>>> re.findall(pattern, 'TVTP(xxxx123123)')
['TVTP']
a quick answer will be
^(\w+)(-.*?)?\((.*?)\)$
https://regex101.com/r/wL4jKe/2/
It is because the first plus is lazy, and the subsequent dash is optional, followed by a pattern that allows any character.
This allows the regex engine to choose the single letter T for the first group (because it is lazy), choose to interpret the dash as just not being there, which is allowed because it is followed by a question mark, and then have the next .* match "VTP-S2".
You can just grab non-dashes to capture, followed by nonparentheses up to the parentheses.
p=re.compile(r'^([^-]*?)[^(]*\(.+?\)')
p.search('TVTP-S2(xxxx123123) blah()').group(1)
The nonparentheses part prevents the second portion from matching 'S2(xxxx123123) blah(' in my modified example above.
I need to search a string in Python 3 and I'm having troubles implementing a non greedy logic starting from the end.
I try to explain with an example:
Input can be one of the following
test1 = 'AB_x-y-z_XX1234567890_84481.xml'
test2 = 'x-y-z_XX1234567890_84481.xml'
test3 = 'XX1234567890_84481.xml'
I need to find the last part of the string ending with
somestring_otherstring.xml
In all the above cases the regex should return XX1234567890_84481.xml
My best try is:
result = re.search('(_.+)?\.xml$', test1, re.I).group()
print(result)
Here I used:
(_.+)? to match "_anystring" in a non greedy mode
\.xml$ to match ".xml" in the final part of the string
The output I get is not correct:
_x-y-z_XX1234567890_84481.xml
I found some SO questions (link) explaining the regex starts from the left even with non greedy qualifier.
Could anyone explain me how to implement a non greedy regex from the right?
Your pattern (_.+)?\.xml$ captures in an optional group from the first underscore until it can match .xml at the end of the string and it does not take the number of underscores that should be between into account.
To only match the last part you can omit the capturing group. You could use a negated character class and use the anchor $ to assert the end of the line as it is the last part:
[^_]+_[^_]+\.xml$
Regex demo | Python demo
That will match
[^_]+ Match 1+ times not _
_ Match literally
[^_]+ Match 1+ times not _
\.xml$ Match .xml at the end of the string
For example:
import re
test1 = 'AB_x-y-z_XX1234567890_84481.xml'
result = re.search('[^_]+_[^_]+\.xml$', test1, re.I)
if result:
print(result.group())
Not sure if this matches what you're looking for conceptually as "non greedy from the right" - but this pattern yields the correct answer:
'[^_]+_[^_]+\.xml$'
The [^_] is a character class matching any character which is not an underscore.
You need to use this regex to capture what you want,
[^_]*_[^_]*\.xml
Demo
Check out this Python code,
import re
arr = ['AB_x-y-z_XX1234567890_84481.xml','x-y-z_XX1234567890_84481.xml','XX1234567890_84481.xml']
for s in arr:
m = re.search(r'[^_]*_[^_]*\.xml', s)
if (m):
print(m.group(0))
Prints,
XX1234567890_84481.xml
XX1234567890_84481.xml
XX1234567890_84481.xml
The problem in your regex (_.+)?\.xml$ is, (_.+)? part will start matching from the first _ and will match anything until it sees a literal .xml and whole of it is optional too as it is followed by ?. Due to which in string _x-y-z_XX1234567890_84481.xml, it will also match _x-y-z_XX1234567890_84481 which isn't the correct behavior you desired.
I am writing a Python script to find a tag name in a string like this:
string='Tag Name =LIC100 State =TRUE'
If a use a expression like this
re.search('Name(.*)State',string)
I get " =LIC100". I would like to get just LIC100.
Any suggestions on how to set up the pattern to eliminate the whitespace and the equal signal?
That is because you get 0+ chars other than line break chars from Name up to the last State. You may restrict the pattern in Group 1 to just non-whitespaces:
import re
string='Tag Name =LIC100 State =TRUE'
m = re.search(r'Name\s*=(\S*)',string)
if m:
print(m.group(1))
See the Python demo
Pattern details:
Name - a literal char sequence
\s* - 0+ whitespaces
= - a literal =
(\S*) - Group 1 capturing 0+ chars other than whitespace (or \S+ can be used to match 1 or more chars other than whitespace).
The easiest solution would probably just be to strip it out after the fact, like so:
s = " =LIC100 "
s = s.strip('= ')
print(s)
#LIC100
If you insist on doing it within the regex, you can try something like:
reg = r'Name[ =]+([A-Za-z0-9]+)\s+State'
Your current regex is failing because (.*) captures all characters until the occurance of State. Instead of capturing everything, you can use a positive lookbehind to describe what preceeds, but is not included in, the content you actually want to capture. In this case, "Name =" preceeds the match, so we can stick it in the lookbehind assertion as (?<=Name =), then proceed to capture everything until the next whitespace:
>>> import re
>>> s = 'Tag Name =LIC100 State =TRUE'
>>> r = re.compile("(?<=Name =)\w*")
>>> print(r.search(s))
<_sre.SRE_Match object; span=(10, 16), match='LIC100'>
>>> print(r.search(s).group(0))
LIC100
Following the tips above, I manage to find a nice solution.
Actually, the string I am trying to process has some non-printable characters. It is like this
"Tag Name\x00=LIC100\x00\tState=TRUE"
Using the concept of lookahead and lookbehind I found the following solution:
import re
s = 'Tag Name\x00=LIC100\x00\tState=TRUE'
T=re.search(r'(?<=Name\x00=)(.*)(?=\x00\tState)',s)
print(T.group(0))
The nice thing about this is that the outcome does not have any non-printable character on it.
<_sre.SRE_Match object; span=(10, 16), match='LIC100'>
How does one replace a pattern when the substitution itself is a variable?
I have the following string:
s = '''[[merit|merited]] and [[eat|eaten]] and [[go]]'''
I would like to retain only the right-most word in the brackets ('merited', 'eaten', 'go'), stripping away what surrounds these words, thus producing:
merited and eaten and go
I have the regex:
p = '''\[\[[a-zA-Z]*\[|]*([a-zA-Z]*)\]\]'''
...which produces:
>>> re.findall(p, s)
['merited', 'eaten', 'go']
However, as this varies, I don't see a way to use re.sub() or s.replace().
s = '''[[merit|merited]] and [[eat|eaten]] and [[go]]'''
p = '''\[\[[a-zA-Z]*?[|]*([a-zA-Z]*)\]\]'''
re.sub(p, r'\1', s)
? so that for [[go]] first [a-zA-Z]* will match empty (shortest) string and second will get actual go string
\1 substitutes first (in this case the only) match group in a pattern for each non-overlapping match in the string s. r'\1' is used so that \1 is not interpreted as the character with code 0x1
well first you need to fix your regex to capture the whole group:
>>> s = '[[merit|merited]] and [[eat|eaten]] and [[go]]'
>>> p = '(\[\[(?:[a-zA-Z]*\|)*([a-zA-Z]*)\]\])'
>>> [('[[merit|merited]]', 'merited'), ('[[eat|eaten]]', 'eaten'), ('[[go]]', 'go')]
[('[[merit|merited]]', 'merited'), ('[[eat|eaten]]', 'eaten'), ('[[go]]', 'go')]
This matches the whole [[whateverisinhere]] and separates the whole match as group 1 and just the final word as group 2. You can than use \2 token to replace the whole match with just group 2:
>>> re.sub(p,r'\2',s)
'merited and eaten and go'
or change your pattern to:
p = '\[\[(?:[a-zA-Z]*\|)*([a-zA-Z]*)\]\]'
which gets rid of grouping the entire match as group 1 and only groups what you want. you can then do:
>>> re.sub(p,r'\1',s)
to have the same effect.
POST EDIT:
I forgot to mention that I actually changed your regex so here is the explanation:
\[\[(?:[a-zA-Z]*\|)*([a-zA-Z]*)\]\]
\[\[ \]\] #literal matches of brackets
(?: )* #non-capturing group that can match 0 or more of whats inside
[a-zA-Z]*\| #matches any word that is followed by a '|' character
( ... ) #captures into group one the final word
I feel like this is stronger than what you originally had because it will also change if there are more than 2 options:
>>> s = '[[merit|merited]] and [[ate|eat|eaten]] and [[go]]'
>>> p = '\[\[(?:[a-zA-Z]*\|)*([a-zA-Z]*)\]\]'
>>> re.sub(p,r'\1',s)
'merited and eaten and go'