Use re module in python re.compile('*ab')

Question

I have

os.listdir('/home/dir/')

with file and file.ab

How can I use regex to list only file.ab on that directory.

When i was use regex with

re.compile('*ab')

it return

Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "<stdin>", line 1, in <module>
  File "/usr/lib64/python2.6/re.py", line 190, in compile
    return _compile(pattern, flags)
  File "/usr/lib64/python2.6/re.py", line 245, in _compile
    raise error, v # invalid expression
sre_constants.error: nothing to repeat

Error is that in regular expression '*' is used for repeating the previous character, '.' represents any character. Here there is nothing before '*' so nothing to repeat. Use '.*' instead in such scenarios. — haraprasadj, Jul 11 '14 at 09:44

score 4 · Answer 1 · answered Jul 11 '14 at 09:39

4

Better use glob:

import glob
print glob.glob('/home/dir/*.ab')

answered Jul 11 '14 at 09:39

perreal

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it will have absolute path, and i can't use it as name. – haulpd Jul 11 '14 at 10:01

score 3 · Accepted Answer · answered Jul 11 '14 at 09:38

3

no need regex :

[i for i in os.listdir('/home/dir/') if i.endswith(".ab")]

answered Jul 11 '14 at 09:38

jrjc

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Use re module in python re.compile('*ab')

2 Answers2