I'm using the following function to remove a specific string pattern from files in a directory:
import os
for filename in os.listdir(path):
os.rename(filename, filename.replace(r'^[A-Z]\d\d\s-\s[A-Z]\d\d\s-\s$', ''))
The pattern is as follows, where A is any capital letter, and # is any number between 0-9:
A## - A## -
My regex matches this format on regex101. When I run the above function, it completes without error, however no directory names change. Where am I going wrong?
replace string method does not support regular expressions.
You need to import the re module and use its sub method.
So your code might look like this:
import os
import re
for filename in os.listdir(path):
os.rename(filename, re.sub(r'^[A-Z]\d\d\s-\s[A-Z]\d\d\s-\s', '', filename))
But don't forget about flags and such.
Edit: Removed $ from the pattern as the filenames don't end there.
$) in your pattern, but the file name does not end there, so it doesn't match. Just remove the $ from your pattern.import re
filename='A11 - A22 - '#A## - A## -
re.sub(filename,r'^[A-Z]\d\d\s-\s[A-Z]\d\d\s-\s', '')
