multiple variable in python regex

Question

I have seen several related posts and several forums to find an answer for my question, but nothing has come up to what I need.

I am trying to use variable instead of hard-coded values in regex which search for either word in a line.

However i am able to get desired result if i don't use variable.

<http://www.somesite.com/software/sub/a1#Msoffice>
<http://www.somesite.com/software/sub1/a1#vlc>
<http://www.somesite.com/software/sub2/a2#dell>
<http://www.somesite.com/software/sub3/a3#Notepad>

re.search(r"\#Msoffice|#vlc|#Notepad", line)

This regex will return the line which has #Msoffice OR #vlc OR #Notepad.

I tried defining a single variable using re.escape and that worked absolutely fine. However i have tried many combination using | and , (pipe and comma) but no success.

Is there any way i can specify #Msoffice , #vlc and #Notepad in different variables and so later i can change those ?

Thanks in advance!!

Nqsir · Accepted Answer · 2019-06-25 13:23:43Z

1

If I did understand you the right way you'd like to insert variables in your regex.

You are actually using a raw string using r' ' to make the regex more readable, but if you're using f' ' it allows you to insert any variables using {your_var} then construct your regex as you like:

var1 = '#Msoffice'
var2 = '#vlc'
var3 = '#Notepad'

re.search(f'{var1}|{var2}|{var3}', line)

The most annoying issue is that you will have to add \ to escaped char, to look for \ it will be \\

Hope it helped

edited Jun 25, 2019 at 13:23

answered May 28, 2019 at 14:04

Nqsir

91911 silver badges20 bronze badges

Sign up to request clarification or add additional context in comments.

Comments

Kaies LAMIRI · Accepted Answer · 2019-05-28 15:05:54Z

0

import re

lines = ["<http://www.somesite.com/software/sub/a1#Msoffice>", 
                "<http://www.somesite.com/software/sub1/a1#vlc>",
                "<http://www.somesite.com/software/sub2/a2#dell>",
                "<http://www.somesite.com/software/sub3/a3#Notepad>"]

for line in lines:
    if re.search(r'\b(?:\#{}|\#{}|\#{})\b'.format('Msoffice', 'vlc', 'Notepad'), line): 
        print(line)

Output :

<http://www.somesite.com/software/sub/a1#Msoffice>
<http://www.somesite.com/software/sub1/a1#vlc>
<http://www.somesite.com/software/sub3/a3#Notepad>

edited May 28, 2019 at 15:05

answered May 28, 2019 at 13:59

Kaies LAMIRI

1991 silver badge8 bronze badges

Collectives™ on Stack Overflow

multiple variable in python regex

2 Answers 2

Comments

Comments

Your Answer

Hot Network Questions

Collectives™ on Stack Overflow

2 Answers 2

Comments

Comments

Your Answer

Sign up or log in

Post as a guest

Related