Python RegEx capturing first word after pattern

Question

Possible strings are:

public class MyClass extends ParentClass {

or

public class MyClass throws SomeException {

or just

public class MyClass {

I am using the following pattern to always capture MyClass:

ptrn = "((public|private|protected)\s+(.*)\s*[class|interface]\s+(\w+))"

But when I do

regex = re.search(ptrn, text)

className = regex.group(4)

for 1 and 2 I get ParentClass and SomeException respectively and only for 3 I get MyClass.

What is wrong with my regex pattern and how do I fix it?

Mara Ormston · Accepted Answer · 2013-12-18 19:05:04Z

3

I don't know Python, but I do know regex fairly well. What you are looking for is something more like: (public|private|protected)\s+(class|interface)\s+(\w+)

I don't know which group that would be in Python, but it most other languages, it'd be group 3 (0 would be the whole string, 1 would be public, private or protected, 2 would be class or interface, 3 would be your class name.)

answered Dec 18, 2013 at 19:05

Mara Ormston

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Explosion Pills · Accepted Answer · 2013-12-18 19:03:55Z

2

[class|interface] is a character class; essentially it will match any one of these characters. Instead, you probably want to use (class|interface)

http://rubular.com/r/Jc6o3SAhi3

answered Dec 18, 2013 at 19:03

Explosion Pills

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nfazzio · Accepted Answer · 2013-12-18 19:07:06Z

1

This works:

strings = ("public class MyClass extends ParentClass {","public class MyClass throws SomeException {","public class MyClass {")
pattern = "((public|private|protected)\s+(class|interface)\s+(\w+))"

for string in strings:
    print re.search(pattern,string).group(4)

answered Dec 18, 2013 at 19:07

nfazzio

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