Python regular expression replace string

Question

I have the following code:

 a="32<2>fdssa</2>ffdsa32"
 re.sub(r'<(\d+)>|</(\d+)>',"item",a)

The result I get:

32itemfdssaitemffdsa32

I want the result:

32<item>fdssa</item>ffdsa32

Avinash Raj · Accepted Answer · 2015-06-25 11:07:10Z

3

You need to capture </ part.

re.sub(r'(</?)\d+>',r"\1item>",a)

Since I made / as optional, (</?) will capture < or </

Example:

>>> a="32<2>fdssa</2>ffdsa32"
>>> re.sub(r'(</?)\d+>',r"\1item>",a)
'32<item>fdssa</item>ffdsa32'

answered Jun 25, 2015 at 11:04

Avinash Raj

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Comments

nu11p01n73R · Accepted Answer · 2015-06-25 11:05:12Z

1

>>> re.sub(r'(</?)\d+(?=>)', r'\1item', a)
'32<item>fdssa</item>ffdsa32'

(</?) matches < or </ captures to \1
\d+ matches one or more digits.
(?=>) positive look ahead, checks if the digits is followed by >, but doesn't consume them

answered Jun 25, 2015 at 11:05

nu11p01n73R

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