Match text between two strings with regular expression

Question

I would like to use a regular expression that matches any text between two strings:

Part 1. Part 2. Part 3 then more text

In this example, I would like to search for "Part 1" and "Part 3" and then get everything in between which would be: ". Part 2. "

I'm using Python 2x.

Avinash Raj · Accepted Answer · 2015-09-20T14:08:15.423

93

Use re.search

>>> import re
>>> s = 'Part 1. Part 2. Part 3 then more text'
>>> re.search(r'Part 1\.(.*?)Part 3', s).group(1)
' Part 2. '
>>> re.search(r'Part 1(.*?)Part 3', s).group(1)
'. Part 2. '

Or use re.findall, if there are more than one occurances.

edited Sep 20 '15 at 14:08

answered Sep 20 '15 at 13:40

Avinash Raj

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Note that the wanted answer is `". Part 2. "`, so the regular expression should be r'Part 1(.*?)Part 3'. See my answer blow. – lord63. j Sep 20 '15 at 14:06
5

Thanks for your answer, but this will not match the new line character. – Maged Saeed Feb 13 '20 at 07:26

score 33 · Answer 2 · answered Sep 20 '15 at 14:04

33

With regular expression:

>>> import re
>>> s = 'Part 1. Part 2. Part 3 then more text'
>>> re.search(r'Part 1(.*?)Part 3', s).group(1)
'. Part 2. '

Without regular expression, this one works for your example:

>>> s = 'Part 1. Part 2. Part 3 then more text'
>>> a, b = s.find('Part 1'), s.find('Part 3')
>>> s[a+6:b]
'. Part 2. '

answered Sep 20 '15 at 14:04

lord63. j

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How did you come up with 6, as the user said anything in between ? – Vetrivel PS Oct 04 '21 at 10:06
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@VetrivelPS its 6 because the length of "part 1" is 6. str.find() returning the location for the first char. – ShayHa Oct 15 '21 at 13:17

Match text between two strings with regular expression

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