Replace brackets around words with something else using regex in Python

Question

I have this text:

Lorem ipsum [!one] and [!two]

And I need to get to this text:

Lorem ipsum [one](http://example.com/one) and [two](http://example.com/two)

This code finds each word between "[!" and "]"

import re
r = r"\[\!(\w+)\]"

text = "Lorem ipsum [!one] and [!two]"

result = re.findall(r, text)

This gives me the following result

['one', 'two']

I could use .replace() but I was wondering if this is doable with regex.

Edit:

I needed the matched text to be processed a bit before replacing it. This is the solution using the answer as a starting point:

import re

def generate_url(input):
    # Do extra stuff here
    return "http://example.com/%s" % input

input = '''Lorem ipsum [!one] and [!two]'''
regex = "\[@([^]]+)\]"

url_generator = lambda match: "[%s](%s)" % (match.group(1), generate_url(match.group(1)))

output= re.sub(regex, url_generator, input)

Sabuj Hassan · Accepted Answer · 2014-03-28 15:20:57Z

4

You can use re.sub() fro this purpose.

input = '''Lorem ipsum [!one] and [!two]'''
input = re.sub("\[!([^]]+)\]", '[\\1](http://example.com/\\1)', input)

\\1 is the captured group from the regex matching ([^]]+)

answered Mar 28, 2014 at 15:20

Sabuj Hassan

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3 Comments

alecxe Over a year ago

Note that input is not a good name for a variable - shadowing built-in.

Virgiliu Over a year ago

It's OK for an example, not gonna use "input" as the var name in the code anyway :) Second line should be "output" but edit needs to be at least 6 characters different so I'll leave it like that.

alecxe Over a year ago

@yoshi see also some info on Raw string notation.

alecxe · Accepted Answer · 2014-03-28 15:21:04Z

2

You can use re.sub():

>>> import re
>>> s = "Lorem ipsum [!one] and [!two]"
>>> re.sub(r"\[\!(\w+)\]", r'[\1](http://example.com/\1)', s)
'Lorem ipsum [one](http://example.com/one) and [two](http://example.com/two)'

\1 is a reference for the captured group (\w+).

Also see documentation on capturing groups.

answered Mar 28, 2014 at 15:21

alecxe

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