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Nested regex

I have a string with alphanumeric values. Numeric values ​​are variable. Alphabetic values ​​are always 'abc'

and 'ghi'

, but I don't know their order. Numerical values ​​always appear after alphabetic values.

Valid examples of this type of string are:

a = 'abc10ghi1450'
b = 'abc11ghi9285'
c = 'ghi1abc9'
...

Now I want to store the numbers after 'abc'

and 'ghi'

in the corresponding variables, and what I do is:

>>> import re
>>> string = 'abc10ghi44'
>>> abc = re.search('abc\d+', string).group(0)
>>> abc = re.search('\d+', abc).group(0)
>>> ghi = re.search('ghi\d+', string).group(0)
>>> ghi = re.search('\d+', ghi).group(0)
>>> print abc, ghi
10, 44

I use 2 regex for each variable and I don't like it; is there a smarter way to do the same?

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1 answer


Yes, make a capturing group around the numbers and use this:

>>> import re
>>> string = 'abc10ghi44'
>>> re.search('abc(\d+)', string).group(1)
'10'

Notice the parentheses around \d+

and 1

in the call group

.



Alternatively, use a positive lookbehind:

>>> re.search('(?<=abc)\d+', string).group(0)
'10'
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