Python split string on regex

Question

I'm trying to split a string using a regular expression.

Friday 1Friday 11 JAN 11

The output I want to achieve is

['Friday 1', 'Friday 11', ' JAN 11']

My snippet so far is not producing the desired results:

>>> import re
>>> p = re.compile(r'(Sunday|Monday|Tuesday|Wednesday|Thursday|Friday|Saturday)\s*\d{1,2}')
>>> filter(None, p.split('Friday 1Friday 11 JAN 11'))
['Friday', 'Friday', ' JAN 11']

What am I doing wrong with my regex?

scoffey · Accepted Answer · 2011-02-14 18:48:42Z

23

The problem is the capturing parentheses. This syntax: (?:...) makes them non-capturing. Try:

p = re.compile(r'((?:Friday|Saturday)\s*\d{1,2})')

answered Feb 14, 2011 at 18:48

scoffey

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2 Comments

Jared Knipp Over a year ago

That's exactly what I was after! I knew it was something small. Thanks

Jared Knipp Over a year ago

I was getting close with p = re.compile(r'((Friday|Saturday)\s*\d{1,2})') but didn't understand why I was getting 2 results for each group. Makes complete sense now though, it was producing the result + the group name back reference.

om-nom-nom · Accepted Answer · 2013-08-22 10:36:12Z

6

You can also use 're.findall' function.

\>>> val  
'Friday 1Friday 11 JAN 11 '  
\>>> pat = re.compile(r'(\w+\s*\d*)')  
\>>> m=re.findall(pat,val)  
\>>> m  
['Friday 1', 'Friday 11', 'JAN 11']

edited Aug 22, 2013 at 10:36

om-nom-nom

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answered Feb 14, 2011 at 18:52

sateesh

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Comments

om-nom-nom · Accepted Answer · 2013-08-22 10:36:30Z

0

p = re.compile(r'(Friday\s\d+|Saturday)')

edited Aug 22, 2013 at 10:36

om-nom-nom

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answered Feb 14, 2011 at 18:47

Asterisk

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