Python matching dashes using Regular Expressions

Question

I am currently new to Regular Expressions and would appreciate if someone can guide me through this.

import re
some = "I cannot take this B01234-56-K-9870 to the house of cards"

I have the above string and trying to extract the string with dashes (B01234-56-K-9870) using python regular expression. I have following code so far:

regex = r'\w+-\w+-\w+-\w+'
match = re.search(regex, some)
print(match.group()) #returns B01234-56-K-9870

Is there any simpler way to extract the dash pattern using regular expression? For now, I do not care about the order or anything. I just wanted it to extract string with dashes.

\w+(?:-\w+)+ would do it. If you expect exactly 3 dashes then \w+(?:-\w+){3} — MonkeyZeus
– MonkeyZeus, Commented Dec 9, 2020 at 14:51
It looks like your data is in a specific format. It is okay to express that properly in the regex. — thefourtheye
– thefourtheye, Commented Dec 9, 2020 at 14:53
There is nothing particularly wrong with your regex. Just know that \w matches the _ as well. Personally, I would find out if there is a more identifiable pattern and use that, such as (?:[A-Z\d]+-){3}\d+ if the final group is always digits and the first three groups are all caps and digits. — dawg
– dawg, Commented Dec 9, 2020 at 15:03

vrintle · Accepted Answer · 2020-12-09 15:27:42Z

1

Try the following regex (as shortened by The fourth bird),

\w+-\S+

Original regex: (?=\w+-)\S+

Explanation:

\w+- matches 1 or more words followed by a -
\S+ matches non-space characters

Regex demo!

edited Dec 9, 2020 at 15:27

answered Dec 9, 2020 at 14:54

vrintle

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4 Comments

Amp Over a year ago

Thank you for explanation. If I wanted to to capture only 3 dashes, how would I achieve that?

vrintle Over a year ago

Then, use \w+(?:-\w+){3} as said by MonkeyZeus

vrintle Over a year ago

Thanks @Tomerikoo for pointing that out ;-)

The fourth bird Over a year ago

You don't need the lookahead, you can just match it.

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