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Python 3.6 Identifying a string and if X in Y

Newb programmer here working on my first project. I've searched this site and the python documentation, and either I'm not seeing the answer, or I'm not using the right terminology. I've read the regex and if sections, specifically, and followed links around to other parts that seemed relevant.
import re
keyphrase = '##' + '' + '##'
print(keyphrase) #output is ####
j = input('> ') ###whatever##
if keyphrase in j:
print('yay')
else:
print('you still haven\'t figured it out...')
k = j.replace('#', '')
print(k) #whatever
This is for a little reddit bot project. I want the bot to be called like ##whatever## and then be able to do things with the word(s) in between the ##'s. I've set up the above code to test if Python was reading it but I keep getting my "you still haven't figured it out..." quip.
I tried adding the REGEX \W in the middle of keyphrase, to no avail. Also weird combinations of \$\$ and quotes
So, my question, is how do I put a placeholder in keyphrase for user input?
For instance, if a ##comment## does something like ##this## ##I can grab## everything between the # symbols as separate inputs/calls.

You could use the following regex r'##(.*?)##' to capture everything inside of the key phrase you've chosen.
Sample Output:
>>> import re
>>> f = lambda s: re.match(r'##(.*?)##', s).group(1)
>>> f("##whatever##")
whatever
>>> f = lambda s: re.findall(r'##(.*?)##', s)
>>> f("a ##comment## does something like ##this## ##I can grab## everything between the # symbols as separate inputs/calls.")
['comment', 'this', 'I can grab']
How does it work? (1) We state the string constant head and tail for the capture group 1 between the brackets (). Great, almost there! (2) We then match any character .*? with greedy search enforced so that we capture the whole string.
Suggested Readings:
Introduction to Regex in Python - Jee Gikera

Something like this should work:
import re
keyphrase_regex = re.compile(r'##(.*)##')
user_input = input('> ')
keyphrase_match = keyphrase_regex.search(user_input)
# `search` returns `None` if regex didn't match anywhere in the string
keyphrase_content = keyphrase_match.group(1) if keyphrase_match else None
if keyphrase_content:
keyphrase_content = keyphrase_match.group(1)
print('yay! You submitted "', keyphrase_content, '" to the bot!')
else:
# Bonus tip: Use double quotes to make a string containing apostrophe
# without using a backslash escape
print("you still haven't figured it out...")
# Use `keyphrase_content` for whatever down here
Regular expressions are kind of hard to wrap your head around, because they work differently than most programming constructs. It's a language to describe patterns.
Regex One is a fantastic beginners guide.
Regex101 is an online sandbox that allows you to type a regular expression and some sample strings, then see what matches (and why) in real time
The regex ##(.*)## basically means "search through the string until you find two '#' signs. Right after those, start capturing zero-or-more of any character. If you find another '#', stop capturing characters. If that '#' is followed by another one, stop looking at the string, return successfully, and hold onto the entire match (from first '#' to last '#'). Also, hold onto the captured characters in case the programmer asks you for just them.
EDIT: Props to #ospahiu for bringing up the ? lazy quantifier. A final solution, combining our approaches, would look like this:
# whatever_bot.py
import re
# Technically, Python >2.5 will compile and cache regexes automatically.
# For tiny projects, it shouldn't make a difference. I think it's better style, though.
# "Explicit is better than implicit"
keyphrase_regex = re.compile(r'##(.*?)##')
def parse_keyphrases(input):
return keyphrase_regex.find_all(input)
Lambdas are cool. I prefer them for one-off things, but the code above is something I'd rather put in a module. Personal preference.
You could even make the regex substitutable, using the '##' one by default
# whatever_bot.py
import re
keyphrase_double_at_sign = re.compile(r'##(.*?)##')
def parse_keyphrases(input, keyphrase_regex=keyphrase_double_at_sign):
return keyphrase_regex.find_all(input)
You could even go bonkers and write a function that generates a keyphrase regex from an arbitrary "tag" pattern! I'll leave that as an exercise for the reader ;) Just remember: Several characters have special regex meanings, like '*' and '?', so if you want to match that literal character, you'd need to escape them (e.g. '\?').

If you want to grab the content between the "#", then try this:
j = input("> ")
"".join(j.split("#"))

You're not getting any of the info between the #'s in your example because you're effectively looking for '####' in whatever input you give it. Unless you happen to put 4 #'s in a row, that RE will never match.
What you want to do instead is something like
re.match('##\W+##', j)
which will look for 2 leading ##s, then any number greater than 1 alphanumeric characters (\W+), then 2 trailing ##s. From there, your strip code looks fine and you should be able to grab it.

using \b in regex

--SOLVED--
I solved my issue by enabling multiline mode, and now the characters ^ and $ work perfectly for identifying the beginning and end of each string
--EDIT--
My code:
import re
import test_regex
def regex_content(text_content, regex_dictionary):
#text_content = text_content.lower()
regex_matches = []
# Search sanitized text (markup removed) for DLP theme keywords
for key,value in regex_dictionary.items():
# Get confiiguration settings
min_matches = value.get('min_matches',1)
risk = value.get('risk',1)
enabled = value.get('enabled',False)
regex_str = value.get('regex','')
# Fast compute True/False hit for each DLP theme word
if enabled:
print "Searching for key : %s" % (key)
my_regex = re.compile(value.get('regex'))
hits = my_regex.findall(text_content)
if len(hits) > 0:
regex_matches.append((key, risk, len(hits), hits))
# Return array of results (key, risk, number of hits, regex matches)
return regex_matches
def main():
#print defaults.test_regex.dlp_regex
text_content = ""
for line in open('testData.txt'):
text_content+=line
for match in regex_content(text_content, test_regex.dlp_regex):
print "\nFound %s : %s" % (match[0], match[3])
print "\n"
if __name__ == '__main__':
main()
and it is using the regex found here:
'Large number of US Zip Codes' : { 'regex' : "\b\d{5}(?:-\d{1,4})?\b"},
When I precede my regex with the 'r' flag, I can find the zip codes I'm looking for, but as well as every other 5 digit number in my document I am searching through. From my understanding this is because it ignored the \b characters. Without the r flag though, it cannot find any zip codes. It works perfectly fine in regexr, but not in my code. I haven't had any luck making \b characters work, nor ^ and $ for identifying the beginnings and ends of the strings I'm searching for. What is it that I am misunderstanding about these special characters?
--Original post--
I am writing a regex for identifying zip codes (and only zip codes), so to avoid false positives I am trying to include a boundary on my regex, using both of the following:
\b\d{5}\b|\b\d{5}-\b\d{1,4}\b
using the online regex debugger Regexr, my code should correctly catch 5 digit zip codes, such as 34332. However, I have two problems:
1. This regex is not working in my actual code for finding any zip codes, but it does work when I don't have the boundary (\b) characters. The exact code I'm trying to extract with my regex is:
Zip:
----
98839-0111
34332
2. I don't see why my regex can't correctly identify 98839-0111 in Regexr. I tried doing the super-primitive approach of
\b\d{5}\b|98839-0111
and even that couldn't identify 98839-0111. Does anyone know what could be going on?
Note: I have also tried using ^ and $ for the boundaries of my regex, but this also doesn't find the regex's, not even in Regexr.
EDIT: After removing the first part of my regex, leaving only
98839-0111
It can now correctly identify it. I guess this means that once a string is pulled out by one of my regex's, it can no longer be found by any subsequent regexs? Why is this?

It is because of the alternative list: the first part was matched, and the engine stopped checking.
Try this regex
98839-0111|\b\d{5}\b
And you'll get a match.
Or, to be more generic in your case:
\b(?:\d{5}-\d{4}|\d{5})\b
will match both, and more (actually, functionally the same as \b\d{5}(?:-\d{4})?\b). See demo.

Your pattern is evaluated for each position in the string from the left to the right, so if the left branch of your pattern succeeds, the second branch isn't tested at all.
I suggest you to use this pattern that solves the problem:
\b\d{5}(?:-\d{1,4})?\b

You can use this regex:
\b(\d{5}-\d{1,4}|\d{5})\b
Working demo

RegEx in Python for WikiMarkup

I'm trying to create a re in python that will match this pattern in order to parse MediaWiki Markup:
<ref>*Any_Character_Could_Be_Here</ref>
But I'm totally lost when it comes to regex. Can someone help me, or point me to a tutorial or resource that might be of some help. Thanks!'

Assuming that svick is correct that MediaWiki Markup is not valid xml (or html), then you could use re in this circumstance (although I will certainly defer to better solutions):
>>> import re
>>> test_string = '''<ref>*Any_Character_Could_Be_Here</ref>
<ref>other characters could be here</ref>'''
>>> re.findall(r'<ref>.*?</ref>', test_string)
['<ref>*Any_Character_Could_Be_Here</ref>', '<ref>other characters could be here</ref>'] # a list of matching strings
In any case, you will want to familiarize yourself with the re module (whether or not you use a regex to solve this particular problem).

srhoades28, this will match your pattern.
if re.search(r"<ref>\*[^<]*</ref>", subject):
# Successful match
else:
# Match attempt failed
Note that from your post, it is assumed that the * after always occurs, and that the only variable part is the blue text, in your example "Any_Character_Could_Be_Here".
If this is not the case let me know and I will tweak the expression.

Python Regular Expression findall with variable

I am trying to use re.findall with look-behind and look-forward to extract data. The regular expression works fine when I am not using a raw_input variable, but I need users to be able to input a variety of different search terms.
Here is the current code:
me = re.findall(r"(?<='(.+)'+variable+'(.+)')(.*?)(?='(.+)+variable+(.+)')", raw)
As you can see, I am trying to pull out strings between one search term.
However, each time I use this type of formatting, I get a fixed width error. Is there anyway around this?
I have also tried the following formats with no success.
variable = raw_input('Term? ')
'.*' + variable + '.*'
and
'.*%s.*' % (variable, )
and
'.*{0}.*'.format(variable)
and
'.*{variable}.*'.format(variable=variable)

I'm not sure if this is what you mean, but it may get you started. As far as I understand your question, you don't need lookaheads or lookbehinds. This is for Python 2.x (won't work with Python 3):
>>> import re
>>> string_to_search = 'fish, hook, swallowed, reeled, boat, fish'
>>> entered_by_user = 'fish'
>>> search_regex = r"{0}(.+){0}".format(entered_by_user)
>>> match = re.search(search_regex, string_to_search)
>>> if match:
... print "result:", match.group(1).strip(' ,')
...
result: hook, swallowed, reeled, boat
If you really want the last 'fish' in the result as in your comment above, then just remove the second {0} from the format() string.

This solution should work:
me = re.findall(rf"(?<='(.+)'+{variable}+'(.+)')(.*?)(?='(.+)+{variable}+(.+)')", raw)
You also can add many different variables as you wish.
Add rf for the regular expression and the desired variables in between {}
import re
text = "regex is the best"
var1 = "is the"
var2 = "best"
yes = re.findall(rf"regex {var1} {var2}", text)
print(yes)
['regex is the best']

The way lookbehind is usually implemented (including its Python implementation) has an inherent limitation that you are unfortunately running into: lookbehinds cannot be variable-length. The "Important Notes About Lookbehind" section here explains why. I think you should be able to do the regex without a lookbehind, though.

Regular expression for string between two strings?

Sorry, I know this is probably a duplicate but having searched for 'python regular expression match between' I haven't found anything that answers my question!
The document (which to make clear, is a long HTML page) I'm searching has a whole bunch of strings in it (inside a JavaScript function) that look like this:
link: '/Hidden/SidebySideGreen/dei1=1204970159862'};
link: '/Hidden/SidebySideYellow/dei1=1204970159862'};
I want to extract the links (i.e. everything between quotes within these strings) - e.g. /Hidden/SidebySideYellow/dei1=1204970159862
To get the links, I know I need to start with:
re.matchall(regexp, doc_sting)
But what should regexp be?

The answer to your question depends on how the rest of the string may look like. If they are all like this link: '<URL>'}; then you can do it very simple using simple string manipulation:
myString = "link: '/Hidden/SidebySideGreen/dei1=1204970159862'};"
print( myString[7:-3] )
(If you just have one string with multiple lines by that, you can just split the string into lines.)
If it is a bit more complex though, using regular expressions are fine. One example that just looks for the url inside of the quotes would be:
myDoc = """link: '/Hidden/SidebySideGreen/dei1=1204970159862'};
link: '/Hidden/SidebySideYellow/dei1=1204970159862'};"""
print( re.findall( "'([^']+)'", myDoc ) )
Depending on how the whole string looks, you might have to include the link: as well:
print( re.findall( "link: '([^']+)'", myDoc ) )

I'd start with:
regexp = "'([^']+)'"
And check if it works okay - I mean, if the only condition is that string is in one line between '', it should be good as it is.

Use a few simple splits
>>> s="link: '/Hidden/SidebySideGreen/dei1=1204970159862'};"
>>> s.split("'")
['link: ', '/Hidden/SidebySideGreen/dei1=1204970159862', '};']
>>> for i in s.split("'"):
... if "/" in i:
... print i
...
/Hidden/SidebySideGreen/dei1=1204970159862
>>>