using variables with REGEX in python

Question

I'm trying to search for specific word using python

f = open("C:\\Users\\Suleiman JK\\Desktop\\keyword.txt")
keyword = f.readlines() -----> keyword[0] = "obj"
file = open ("C:\\Users\\Suleiman JK\\Desktop\\Hello.pdf")
text = file.readlines()


for line in text:
    if re.search (r"\b"+keyword[0]+r"\b"):
        print (line)

it doesn't give me the word I'm looking for

but when I use This it works fine:

for line in text:                                    
    if re.search (r"\b"+"obj"+r"\b"):
        print (line)

or when I use this it gives me "obj" and "endobj":

for line in text:                                    
    if re.search (keyword[0]):
        print (line)

could any one help me?

Are you sure keyword[0] is not "obj\n"? Try printing repr(keyword[0]). — Ashwini Chaudhary
– Ashwini Chaudhary, Commented Mar 25, 2014 at 20:21

Christian Tapia · Accepted Answer · 2014-03-25 20:22:39Z

1

What happens is that the in reality, the string is:

"obj\n"

the character "\n" is called a new-line character, and it's used to separate lines.

How to "delete" it?

You can use the method rstrip() from strings. This method will return a copy of the string with trailing characters removed. By default it will remove all whitespaces:

keyword[0].rstrip()

So, in your case, you can use it like:

re.search (r"\b" + keyword[0].rstrip() + r"\b")

answered Mar 25, 2014 at 20:22

Christian Tapia

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