Get string between two sub strings; second sub string ignored

Asked Nov 18 '16 at 13:20

Active Nov 18 '16 at 13:20

Viewed 22 times

I have the string:

a = '/imo:9615169/mmsi:373239000/vessel:ALAM%20MUTIARA'

Using regex,

result = re.search('imo:(.*)/', a)
print(result.group(1)) #prints 9284764/mmsi:354662000

Why does this print 9284764/mmsi:354662000 instead of just 9284764?

asked Nov 18 '16 at 13:20

Rafael

1

Because `*` is a greedy quantifier matching as many chars as possible. When usign `*?` lazy quantifier, you'd get your required value. – Wiktor Stribiżew Nov 18 '16 at 13:22
use "\d" instead of "." -> result = re.search('imo:(\d*)/', a) – Rehan Shikkalgar Nov 18 '16 at 13:26

0 Answers0