Extract VAT identification number with Python

Question

I am trying to extract the German VAT number (Umsatzsteuer-Identifikationsnummer) from a text.

string = "I want to get this DE813992525 number."

I know, that the correct regex for this problem is (?xi)^( (DE)?[0-9]{9}|)$. It works great according to my demo.

What I tried is:

string = "I want to get this DE813992525 number.
match = re.compile(r'(?xi)^( (DE)?[0-9]{9}|)$')
print(match.findall(string))

>>>>>> []

What I would like to get is:

print(match.findall(string))
>>>>>  DE813992525

Why not just `^DE[0-9]{9}$`https://regex101.com/r/FDuzNE/1 See https://ideone.com/nRaAXx — The fourth bird, Sep 10 '20 at 11:44
no, it's [not correct one](https://regex101.com/r/yMFxD7/1) - e.g. `$` anchor means end of string and your test string VAT number is not at the end. — buran, Sep 10 '20 at 11:44

score 1 · Accepted Answer · answered Sep 10 '20 at 11:47

1

When searching within a string, dont use ^ and $:

import re
string = """I want to get this DE813992525 number.
I want to get this DE813992526 number.
"""
match = re.compile(r'DE[0-9]{9}')
print(match.findall(string))

Out:

['DE813992525', 'DE813992526']

answered Sep 10 '20 at 11:47

Maurice Meyer

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Thank you very much! What would be the regex if the numbers are seperated: ``DE 813 992 525`` and ``DE 813992526`` – PParker Sep 10 '20 at 12:22
1

Or could use the `OR` operator in the regexp: `DE[0-9 ]{12}|DE[0-9]{9}` – Maurice Meyer Sep 10 '20 at 12:25

Extract VAT identification number with Python

1 Answers1