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Extracting two strings from between two characters. Why doesn't my regex match and how can I improve it?

I'm learning about regular expressions and I to want extract a string from a text that has the following characteristic:
It always begins with the letter C, in either lowercase or
uppercase, which is then followed by a number of hexadecimal
characters (meaning it can contain the letters A to F and numbers
from 1 to 9, with no zeros included).
After those hexadecimal
characters comes a letter P, also either in lowercase or uppercase
And then some more hexadecimal characters (again, excluding 0).
Meaning I want to capture the strings that come in between the letters C and P as well as the string that comes after the letter P and concatenate them into a single string, while discarding the letters C and P
Examples of valid strings would be:
c45AFP2
CAPF
c56Bp26
CA6C22pAAA
For the above examples what I want would be to extract the following, in the same order:
45AF2 # Original string: c45AFP2
AF # Original string: CAPF
56B26 # Original string: c56Bp26
A6C22AAA # Original string: CA6C22pAAA
Examples of invalid strings would be:
BCA6C22pAAA # It doesn't begin with C
c56Bp # There aren't any characters after P
c45AF0P2 # Contains a zero
I'm using python and I want a regex to extract the two strings that come both in between the characters C and P as well as after P
So far I've come up with this:
(?<=\A[cC])[a-fA-F1-9]*(?<=[pP])[a-fA-F1-9]*
A breakdown would be:
(?<=\A[cC]) Positive lookbehind assertion. Asserts that what comes before the regex parser’s current position must match [cC] and that [cC] must be at the beginning of the string
[a-fA-F1-9]* Matches a single character in the list between zero and unlimited times
(?<=[pP]) Positive lookbehind assertion. Asserts that what comes before the regex parser’s current position must match [pP]
[a-fA-F1-9]* Matches a single character in the list between zero and unlimited times
But with the above regex I can't match any of the strings!
When I insert a | in between (?<=[cC])[a-fA-F1-9]* and (?<=[pP])[a-fA-F1-9]* it works.
Meaning the below regex works:
(?<=[cC])[a-fA-F1-9]*|(?<=[pP])[a-fA-F1-9]*
I know that | means that it should match at most one of the specified regex expressions. But it's non greedy and it returns the first match that it finds. The remaining expressions aren’t tested, right?
But using | means the string BCA6C22pAAA is a partial match to AAA since it comes after P, even though the first assertion isn't true, since it doesn't begin with a C.
That shouldn't be the case. I want it to only match if all conditions explained in the beginning are true.
Could someone explain to me why my first attempt doesn't produces the result I want? Also, how can I improve my regex?
I still need it to:
Not be a match if the string contains the number 0
Only be a match if ALL conditions are met
Thank you

To match both groups before and after P or p
(?<=^[Cc])[1-9a-fA-F]+(?=[Pp]([1-9a-fA-F]+$))
(?<=^[Cc]) - Positive Lookbehind. Must match a case insensitive C or c at the start of the line
[1-9a-fA-F]+ - Matches hexadecimal characters one or more times
(?=[Pp] - Positive Lookahead for case insensitive p or P
([1-9a-fA-F]+$) - Cature group for one or more hexadecimal characters following the pP
View Demo

Your main problem is you're using a look behind (?<=[pP]) for something ahead, which will never work: You need a look ahead (?=...).
Also, the final quantifier should be + not * because you require at least one trailing character after the p.
The final mistake is that you're not capturing anything, you're only matching, so put what you want to capture inside brackets, which also means you can remove all look arounds.
If you use the case insensitive flag, it makes the regex much smaller and easier to read.
A working regex that captures the 2 hex parts in groups 1 and 2 is:
(?i)^c([a-f1-9]*)p([a-f1-9]+)
See live demo.
Unless you need to use \A, prefer ^ (start of input) over \A (start of all input in multi line scenario) because ^ easier to read and \A won't match every line, which is what many situations and tools expect. I've used ^.

Regex of sequences surrounded by specific pattern with overlapping problem

I am very new to use python re.finditer to find a regex pattern but trying to make a complex pattern finding, which is the g-quadruplex motif and described as below.
The sequence starts with at least 3 g followed with a/t/g/c multiple times until the next group of ggg+ shows up. this will repeat 3 times and resulting in a pattern like ggg+...ggg+...ggg+...ggg+
The cases should be all ignored and the overlapping can show in the original sequence like ggg+...ggg+...ggg+...ggg+...ggg+...ggg+ should return 3 such patterns.
I have suffered for some time and can only find a way like:
re.finditer(r"(?=(([Gg]{3,})([AaTtCcGg]+?(?=[Gg]{3,})[Gg]{3,}){3}))", seq)
and then filter out the ones that do not with the same start position with
re.finditer(r"([Gg]{3,})", seq)
Is there any better way to extract this type of sequence? And no for loops please since I have millions of rows like this.
Thank you very much!
PS: an example can be like this
ggggggcgggggggACGCTCggctcAAGGGCTCCGGGCCCCgggggggACgcgcgAAGGGCTCC
1.ggggggcgggggggACGCTCggctcAAGGGCTCCGGG
2.gggggggACGCTCggctcAAGGGCTCCGGGCCCCggggggg
3.GGGCTCCGGGCCCCgggggggACgcgcgAAGGG

You could start the match, asserting that what is directly to the left is not a g char to prevent matching on too many positions.
To match both upper and lowercase chars, you can make the pattern case insensitive using re.I
The value is in capture group 1, which will be returned by re.findall.
(?<!g)(?=(g{3,}(?:[atc](?:g{0,2}[atc])*g{3,}){3}))
(?<!g) Negative lookbehind, assert not g directly to the left
(?= Positive lookahead
( Capture group 1
g{3,} Match 3 or more g chars to start with
(?: Non capture group
[atc](?:g{0,2}[atc])* Optionally repeat matching a t c and 0, 1 or 2 g chars without crossing matching ggg
g{3,} Match 3 or more g chars to end with
){3} Close non capture group and repeat 3 times
) Close group 1
) Close lookahead
Regex demo | Python demo
import re
pattern = r"(?<!g)(?=(g{3,}(?:[atc](?:g{0,2}[atc])*g{3,}){3}))"
s = ("ggggggcgggggggACGCTCggctcAAGGGCTCCGGGCCCCgggggggACgcgcgAAGGGCTCC \n")
print(re.findall(pattern, s, re.I))
Output
[
'ggggggcgggggggACGCTCggctcAAGGGCTCCGGG',
'gggggggACGCTCggctcAAGGGCTCCGGGCCCCggggggg',
'GGGCTCCGGGCCCCgggggggACgcgcgAAGGG'
]

import regex as re
seq = 'ggggggcgggggggACGCTCggctcAAGGGCTCCGGGCCCCgggggggACgcgcgAAGGGCTCC'
for match in re.finditer(r'(?<=(^|[^g]))g{3,}([atc](g{,2}[atc]+)*g{3,}){3}', seq, overlapped=True, flags=re.I):
print(match[0])
Overlapped works by restarting the search from the character after the start of the current match rather than the end of it. This would give you a bunch of essentially duplicate results, each just removing an extra leading G. To stop that, check for a preceding G with a lookbehind:
(?<=(^|[^g]))
The middle section needs to be a bit more complicated to require an ATC, preventing the seven G's from being split into a ggggggg match. So require one, then allow for any number of less the three G's followed by more ATCs; repeating as needed:
[atc](g{,2}[atc]+)*
The rest is just the Gs and the repeating.

regex to find a pair of adjacent digits with different digits around them

I'm a beginner to regex and I am trying to make an expression to find if there are two of the same digits next to each other, and the digit behind and in front of the pair is different.
For example,
123456678 should match as there is a double 6,
1234566678 should not match as there is no double with different surrounding numbers.
12334566 should match because there are two 3s.
So far i have this which works only with 1, and as long as the double is not at the start or end of the string, however I can deal with that by adding a letter at the start and end.
^.*([^1]11[^1]).*$
I know i can use [0-9] instead of the 1s but the problem is having them all be the same digit.
Thank you!

I have divided my answer into four sections.
The first section contains my solution to the problem. Readers interested in nothing else may skip the other sections.
The remaining three sections are concerned with identifying the pairs of equal digits that are preceded by a different digit and are followed by a different digit. The first of the three sections matches them; the other two capture them in a group.
I've included the last section because I wanted to share The Greatest Regex Trick Ever with those unfamiliar with it, because I find it so very cool and clever, yet simple. It is documented here. Be forewarned that, to build suspense, the author at that link has included a lengthy preamble before the drum-roll reveal.
Determine if a string contains two consecutive equal digits that are preceded by a different digit and are followed by a different digit
You can test the string as follows:
import re
r = r'(\d)(?!\1)(\d)\2(?!\2)\d'
arr = ["123456678", "1123455a666788"]
for s in arr:
print(s, bool(re.search(r, s)) )
displays
123456678 True
1123455a666788 False
Run Python code | Start your engine!1
The regex engine performs the following operations.
(\d) : match a digit and save to capture group 1 (preceding digit)
(?!\1) : next character cannot equal content of capture group 1
(\d) : match a digit in capture group 2 (first digit of pair)
\2 : match content of capture group 2 (second digit of pair)
(?!\2) : next character cannot equal content of capture group 2
\d : match a digit
(?!\1) and (?!\2) are negative lookaheads.
Use Python's regex module to match pairs of consecutive digits that have the desired property
You can use the following regular expression with Python’s regex module to obtain the matching pairs of digits.
r'(\d)(?!\1)\K(\d)\2(?=\d)(?!\2)'
Regex Engine
The regex engine performs the following operations.
(\d) : match a digit and save to capture group 1 (preceding digit)
(?!\1) : next character cannot equal content of capture group 1
\K : forget everything matched so far and reset start of match
(\d) : match a digit in capture group 2 (first digit of pair)
\2 : match content of capture group 2 (second digit of pair)
(?=\d) : next character must be a digit
(?!\2) : next character cannot equal content of capture group 2
(?=\d) is a positive lookahead. (?=\d)(?!\2) could be replaced with (?!\2|$|\D).
Save pairs of consecutive digits that have the desired property to a capture group
Another way to obtain the matching pairs of digits, which does not require the regex module, is to extract the contents of capture group 2 from matches of the following regular expression.
r'(\d)(?!\1)((\d)\3)(?!\3)(?=\d)'
Re engine
The following operations are performed.
(\d) : match a digit in capture group 1
(?!\1) : next character does not equal last character
( : begin capture group 2
(\d) : match a digit in capture group 3
\3 : match the content of capture group 3
) : end capture group 2
(?!\3) : next character does not equal last character
(?=\d) : next character is a digit
Use The Greatest Regex Trick Ever to identify pairs of consecutive digits that have the desired property
We use the following regular expression to match the string.
r'(\d)(?=\1)|\d(?=(\d)(?!\2))|\d(?=\d(\d)\3)|\d(?=(\d{2})\d)'
When there is a match, we pay no attention to which character was matched, but examine the content of capture group 4 ((\d{2})), as I will explain below.
The Trick in action
The first three components of the alternation correspond to the ways that a string of four digits can fail to have the property that the second and third digits are equal, the first and second are unequal and the third and fourth are equal. They are:
(\d)(?=\1) : assert first and second digits are equal
\d(?=(\d)(?!\2)) : assert second and third digits are not equal
\d(?=\d(\d)\3) : assert third and fourth digits are equal
It follows that if there is a match of a digit and the first three parts of the alternation fail the last part (\d(?=(\d{2})\d)) must succeed, and the capture group it contains (#4) must contain the two equal digits that have the required properties. (The final \d is needed to assert that the pair of digits of interest is followed by a digit.)
If there is a match how do we determine if the last part of the alternation is the one that is matched?
When this regex matches a digit we have no interest in what digit that was. Instead, we look to capture group 4 ((\d{2})). If that group is empty we conclude that one of the first three components of the alternation matched the digit, meaning that the two digits following the matched digit do not have the properties that they are equal and are unequal to the digits that precede and follow them.
If, however, capture group 4 is not empty, it means that none of the first three parts of the alternation matched the digit, so the last part of the alternation must have matched and the two digits following the matched digit, which are held in capture group 4, have the desired properties.
1. Move the cursor around for detailed explanations.

With regex, it is much more convenient to use a PyPi regex module with the (*SKIP)(*FAIL) based pattern:
import regex
rx = r'(\d)\1{2,}(*SKIP)(*F)|(\d)\2'
l = ["123456678", "1234566678"]
for s in l:
print(s, bool(regex.search(rx, s)) )
See the Python demo. Output:
123456678 True
1234566678 False
Regex details
(\d)\1{2,}(*SKIP)(*F) - a digit and then two or more occurrences of the same digit
| - or
(\d)\2 - a digit and then the same digit.
The point is to match all chunks of identical 3 or more digits and skip them, and then match a chunk of two identical digits.
See the regex demo.

Inspired by the answer or Wiktor Stribiżew, another variation of using an alternation with re is to check for the existence of the capturing group which contains a positive match for 2 of the same digits not surrounded by the same digit.
In this case, check for group 3.
((\d)\2{2,})|\d(\d)\3(?!\3)\d
Regex demo | Python demo
( Capture group 1
(\d)\2{2,} Capture group 2, match 1 digit and repeat that same digit 2+ times
) Close group
| Or
\d(\d) Match a digit, capture a digit in group 3
\3(?!\3)\d Match the same digit as in group 3. Match the 4th digit, but is should not be the same as the group 3 digit
For example
import re
pattern = r"((\d)\2{2,})|\d(\d)\3(?!\3)\d"
strings = ["123456678", "12334566", "12345654554888", "1221", "1234566678", "1222", "2221", "66", "122", "221", "111"]
for s in strings:
match = re.search(pattern, s)
if match and match.group(3):
print ("Match: " + match.string)
else:
print ("No match: " + s)
Output
Match: 123456678
Match: 12334566
Match: 12345654554888
Match: 1221
No match: 1234566678
No match: 1222
No match: 2221
No match: 66
No match: 122
No match: 221
No match: 111
If for example 2 or 3 digits only is also ok to match, you could check for group 2
(\d)\1{2,}|(\d)\2
Python demo

You can also use a simple way .
import re
l=["123456678",
"1234566678",
"12334566 "]
for i in l:
matches = re.findall(r"((.)\2+)", i)
if any(len(x[0])!=2 for x in matches):
print "{}-->{}".format(i, False)
else:
print "{}-->{}".format(i, True)
You can customize this based on you rules.
Output:
123456678-->True
1234566678-->False
12334566 -->True

Regex to find N characters between underscore and period

I have a filename having numerals like test_20200331_2020041612345678.csv.
So I just want to read only first 8 characters from the number between last underscore and .csv using a regex.
For e.g: From the file name test_20200331_2020041612345678.csv --> i want to read only 20200416 using regex.
Regex tried: (?<=_)(\d+)(?=\.)
But it is returning the full number between underscore and period i.e 2020041612345678
Also, when tried quantifier like (?<=_)(\d{8})(?=\.) its not matching with any string

The (?<=_)(\d{8})(?=\.) does not work because the (?=\.) positive lookahead requires the presence of a . char immediately to the right of the current location, i.e. right after the eigth digit, but there are more digits in between.
You may add \d* before \. to match any amount of digits after the required 8 digits, use
(?<=_)\d{8}(?=\d*\.)
Or, with a capturing group, you do not even need lookarounds (just make sure you access Group 1 when a match is obtained):
_(\d{8})\d*\.
See the regex demo
Python demo:
import re
s = "test_20200331_2020041612345678.csv"
m = re.search(r"(?<=_)\d{8}(?=\d*\.)", s)
# m = re.search(r"_(\d{8})\d*\.", s) # capturing group approach
if m:
print(m.group()) # => 20200416
# print(m.group(1)) # capturing group approach

Use regex to identify 4 to 5 numbers that are (consecutive, i.e no whitespace or special characters included), without including preceding 0's

I am trying to use regular expressions to identify 4 to 5 digit numbers. The code below is working effectively in all cases unless there are consecutive 0's preceding a one, two or 3 digit number. I don't want '0054','0008',or '0009' to be a match, but i would want '10354' or '10032', or '9005', or '9000' to all be matches. Is there a good way to implement this using regular expressions? Here is my current code that works for most cases except when there are preceding 0's to a series of digits less than 4 or 5 characters in length.
import re
line = 'US Machine Operations | 0054'
match = re.search(r'\d{4,5}', line)
if match is None:
print(0)
else:
print(int(match[0]))

You may use
(?<!\d)[1-9]\d{3,4}(?!\d)
See the regex demo.
NOTE: In Pandas str.extract, you must wrap the part you want to be returned with a capturing group, a pair of unescaped parentheses. So, you need to use
(?<!\d)([1-9]\d{3,4})(?!\d)
^ ^
Example:
df2['num_col'] = df2.Warehouse.str.extract(r'(?<!\d)([1-9]\d{3,4})(?!\d)', expand = False).astype(float)
Just because you can simple use a capturing group, you may use an equivalent regex:
(?:^|\D)([1-9]\d{3,4})(?!\d)
Details
(?<!\d) - no digit immediately to the left
or (?:^|\D) - start of string or non-digit char (a non-capturing group is used so that only 1 capturing group could be accommodated in the pattern and let str.extract only extract what needs extracting)
[1-9] - a non-zero digit
\d{3,4} - three or four digits
(?!\d) - no digit immediately to the right is allowed
Python demo:
import re
s = "US Machine Operations | 0054 '0054','0008',or '0009' to be a match, but i would want '10354' or '10032', or '9005', or '9000'"
print(re.findall(r'(?<!\d)[1-9]\d{3,4}(?!\d)', s))
# => ['10354', '10032', '9005', '9000']