Why my regex can not work in Python?

Question

What I am trying to match is something like this:

public FUNCTION_NAME
FUNCTION_NAME proc near
......

FUNCTION_NAME endp

FUNCTION_NAME can be :

version_etc
version_etc_arn
version_etc_ar

and my pattern is:

pattern = "public\s+" + func_name + "[\s\S]*" + func_name + "\s+endp"

and match with:

match = re.findall(pattern, content)

So currently I find if the fuction_name equals version_etc, then it will match all the version_etc_arn, version_etc_ar and version_etc.....

which means if the pattern is :

"public\s+" + "version_etc" + "[\s\S]*" + "version_etc" + "\s+endp"

then it will match:

public version_etc_arn
version_etc_arn proc near
......

version_etc_arn endp

public version_etc_ar
version_etc_ar proc near
......

version_etc_ar endp

public version_etc
version_etc proc near
......

version_etc endp

And I am trying to just match:

public version_etc
version_etc proc near
......

version_etc endp

Am I wrong? Could anyone give me some help?

THank you!

Also, you should always be using raw strings when dealing with regexes (to handle escape sequences correctly), and you don't need [\s\S] in Python; . works just like it if you specify re.DOTALL when compiling/using the regex. — Tim Pietzcker
– Tim Pietzcker, Commented Feb 1, 2014 at 16:57
@TimPietzcker Hi Tim, I modified my question, is it clear now? — lllllllllllll
– lllllllllllll, Commented Feb 1, 2014 at 16:59

unutbu · Accepted Answer · 2014-02-01 16:57:18Z

2

[\s\S]* matches 0-or-more of anything, including the _arn that you are trying to exclude. Thus, you need to require a whitespace after func_name:

pattern = r"(?sm)public\s+{f}\s.*^{f}\s+endp".format(f=func_name)

answered Feb 1, 2014 at 16:57

unutbu

886k197 gold badges1.9k silver badges1.7k bronze badges

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

1 Comment

Tim Pietzcker Over a year ago

Oooh. Format string syntax. Unfortunately, I can only upvote this once.

Collectives™ on Stack Overflow

Why my regex can not work in Python?

1 Answer 1

1 Comment

Your Answer

Hot Network Questions

Collectives™ on Stack Overflow

1 Answer 1

1 Comment

Your Answer

Sign up or log in

Post as a guest

Related