Python - Does the string contain a specific string within brackets?

Question

I am trying to find out if a string contains [city.----] and where the ---- is, any city could be in there. I just want to make sure it's formatted correctly. I've been searching for how I can ask Python to ignore that ---- but with no luck. Here is an example on how I would like to use this in the code:

if "[city.----]" in mystring:
    print 'success'

So you're searching for [city.]? – kender Sep 14 '13 at 08:14 — kender, Sep 14 '13 at 08:14
`mystring.startswith('[city.') and mystring.endswith(']')` – falsetru Sep 14 '13 at 08:15 — falsetru, Sep 14 '13 at 08:15
Are you looking for something like a regex? – wei2912 Sep 14 '13 at 08:15 — wei2912, Sep 14 '13 at 08:15
Ys, I'm looking for: [city.] – justachap Sep 14 '13 at 08:16 — justachap, Sep 14 '13 at 08:16

score 5 · Accepted Answer · edited May 23 '17 at 10:31

5

You can use str.startswith() and str.endswith():

if mystring.startswith('[city.') and mystring.endswith(']'):
    print 'success'

Alternatively, you can use python's slice notation:

if mystring[:6] == '[city.' and mystring[-1:] == ']':
    print 'success'

Lastly, you can use regular expressions:

import re
if re.search(r'^\[city\..*?\]$', mystring) is not None:
    print 'success'

edited May 23 '17 at 10:31

Community

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answered Sep 14 '13 at 08:17

TerryA

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You could improve on the regular expression by making it either non-greedy (`.*?`) or by matching everything *except* a closing bracket (`[^\]]*`) instead of all characters. – Martijn Pieters Sep 14 '13 at 09:01
@MartijnPieters Thanks! – TerryA Sep 14 '13 at 09:09

score 0 · Answer 2 · answered Sep 14 '13 at 08:19

Try something using re module (Here's the HOWTO about regular expressions).

>>> import re

>>> x = "asalkjakj [city.Absul Hasa Hii1] asjad a" # good string
>>> y = "asalkjakj [city.Absul Hasa Hii1 asjad a" # wrong string
>>> print re.match ( r'.*\[city\..*\].*', x )
<_sre.SRE_Match object at 0x1064ad578>
>>> print re.match ( r'.*\[city\..*\].*', y )
None

Python - Does the string contain a specific string within brackets?

2 Answers2