python 3 regex string matching ignore whitespace and string.punctuation












1














I am new to regex and would like to know how to pattern match two strings. The use case would be something like finding a certain phrase in some text. I'm using python 3.7 if that makes a difference.



phrase = "some phrase" #the phrase I'm searching for


Possible matches:



text = "some#@$#phrase"
^^^^ #non-alphanumeric can be treated like a single space
text = "some phrase"
text = "!!!some!!! phrase!!!"


These are not matches:



text = "some phrases"
^ #the 's' on the end makes it false
text = "ssome phrase"
text = "some other phrase"


I have tried using something like:



re.search(r'b'+phrase+'b', text)


I would very much appreciate an explanation of why the regex works if you provide a valid solution.










share|improve this question
























  • Please edit your question because its not clear what do you want.
    – Juan Ignacio Sánchez
    Nov 10 at 14:24
















1














I am new to regex and would like to know how to pattern match two strings. The use case would be something like finding a certain phrase in some text. I'm using python 3.7 if that makes a difference.



phrase = "some phrase" #the phrase I'm searching for


Possible matches:



text = "some#@$#phrase"
^^^^ #non-alphanumeric can be treated like a single space
text = "some phrase"
text = "!!!some!!! phrase!!!"


These are not matches:



text = "some phrases"
^ #the 's' on the end makes it false
text = "ssome phrase"
text = "some other phrase"


I have tried using something like:



re.search(r'b'+phrase+'b', text)


I would very much appreciate an explanation of why the regex works if you provide a valid solution.










share|improve this question
























  • Please edit your question because its not clear what do you want.
    – Juan Ignacio Sánchez
    Nov 10 at 14:24














1












1








1







I am new to regex and would like to know how to pattern match two strings. The use case would be something like finding a certain phrase in some text. I'm using python 3.7 if that makes a difference.



phrase = "some phrase" #the phrase I'm searching for


Possible matches:



text = "some#@$#phrase"
^^^^ #non-alphanumeric can be treated like a single space
text = "some phrase"
text = "!!!some!!! phrase!!!"


These are not matches:



text = "some phrases"
^ #the 's' on the end makes it false
text = "ssome phrase"
text = "some other phrase"


I have tried using something like:



re.search(r'b'+phrase+'b', text)


I would very much appreciate an explanation of why the regex works if you provide a valid solution.










share|improve this question















I am new to regex and would like to know how to pattern match two strings. The use case would be something like finding a certain phrase in some text. I'm using python 3.7 if that makes a difference.



phrase = "some phrase" #the phrase I'm searching for


Possible matches:



text = "some#@$#phrase"
^^^^ #non-alphanumeric can be treated like a single space
text = "some phrase"
text = "!!!some!!! phrase!!!"


These are not matches:



text = "some phrases"
^ #the 's' on the end makes it false
text = "ssome phrase"
text = "some other phrase"


I have tried using something like:



re.search(r'b'+phrase+'b', text)


I would very much appreciate an explanation of why the regex works if you provide a valid solution.







regex string python-3.x pattern-matching non-alphanumeric






share|improve this question















share|improve this question













share|improve this question




share|improve this question








edited Nov 10 at 14:30

























asked Nov 10 at 14:17









quixote

154




154












  • Please edit your question because its not clear what do you want.
    – Juan Ignacio Sánchez
    Nov 10 at 14:24


















  • Please edit your question because its not clear what do you want.
    – Juan Ignacio Sánchez
    Nov 10 at 14:24
















Please edit your question because its not clear what do you want.
– Juan Ignacio Sánchez
Nov 10 at 14:24




Please edit your question because its not clear what do you want.
– Juan Ignacio Sánchez
Nov 10 at 14:24












1 Answer
1






active

oldest

votes


















1














You should use something like this:



re.search(r'bsomeW+phraseb', text)



  • 'W' means non-word character


  • '+' means one or more times



In case you have a given phrase in a variable, you could try this before:



some_phrase = some_phrase.replace(r' ', r'W+')





share|improve this answer























  • some_phrase = some_phrase.replace(r' ', r'W+') prints 'someW+phrase'.
    – quixote
    Nov 10 at 15:10










  • finally you put b at the begining and the end.
    – Juan Ignacio Sánchez
    Nov 10 at 15:16










  • does not this solve your problem? please explain to me on what you are stuck
    – Juan Ignacio Sánchez
    Nov 10 at 15:20










  • Oh I see what you mean. Perform the replace and then search using that string. Yes that is what I needed. Thank you.
    – quixote
    Nov 10 at 15:42













Your Answer






StackExchange.ifUsing("editor", function () {
StackExchange.using("externalEditor", function () {
StackExchange.using("snippets", function () {
StackExchange.snippets.init();
});
});
}, "code-snippets");

StackExchange.ready(function() {
var channelOptions = {
tags: "".split(" "),
id: "1"
};
initTagRenderer("".split(" "), "".split(" "), channelOptions);

StackExchange.using("externalEditor", function() {
// Have to fire editor after snippets, if snippets enabled
if (StackExchange.settings.snippets.snippetsEnabled) {
StackExchange.using("snippets", function() {
createEditor();
});
}
else {
createEditor();
}
});

function createEditor() {
StackExchange.prepareEditor({
heartbeatType: 'answer',
autoActivateHeartbeat: false,
convertImagesToLinks: true,
noModals: true,
showLowRepImageUploadWarning: true,
reputationToPostImages: 10,
bindNavPrevention: true,
postfix: "",
imageUploader: {
brandingHtml: "Powered by u003ca class="icon-imgur-white" href="https://imgur.com/"u003eu003c/au003e",
contentPolicyHtml: "User contributions licensed under u003ca href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/"u003ecc by-sa 3.0 with attribution requiredu003c/au003e u003ca href="https://stackoverflow.com/legal/content-policy"u003e(content policy)u003c/au003e",
allowUrls: true
},
onDemand: true,
discardSelector: ".discard-answer"
,immediatelyShowMarkdownHelp:true
});


}
});














draft saved

draft discarded


















StackExchange.ready(
function () {
StackExchange.openid.initPostLogin('.new-post-login', 'https%3a%2f%2fstackoverflow.com%2fquestions%2f53239841%2fpython-3-regex-string-matching-ignore-whitespace-and-string-punctuation%23new-answer', 'question_page');
}
);

Post as a guest















Required, but never shown

























1 Answer
1






active

oldest

votes








1 Answer
1






active

oldest

votes









active

oldest

votes






active

oldest

votes









1














You should use something like this:



re.search(r'bsomeW+phraseb', text)



  • 'W' means non-word character


  • '+' means one or more times



In case you have a given phrase in a variable, you could try this before:



some_phrase = some_phrase.replace(r' ', r'W+')





share|improve this answer























  • some_phrase = some_phrase.replace(r' ', r'W+') prints 'someW+phrase'.
    – quixote
    Nov 10 at 15:10










  • finally you put b at the begining and the end.
    – Juan Ignacio Sánchez
    Nov 10 at 15:16










  • does not this solve your problem? please explain to me on what you are stuck
    – Juan Ignacio Sánchez
    Nov 10 at 15:20










  • Oh I see what you mean. Perform the replace and then search using that string. Yes that is what I needed. Thank you.
    – quixote
    Nov 10 at 15:42


















1














You should use something like this:



re.search(r'bsomeW+phraseb', text)



  • 'W' means non-word character


  • '+' means one or more times



In case you have a given phrase in a variable, you could try this before:



some_phrase = some_phrase.replace(r' ', r'W+')





share|improve this answer























  • some_phrase = some_phrase.replace(r' ', r'W+') prints 'someW+phrase'.
    – quixote
    Nov 10 at 15:10










  • finally you put b at the begining and the end.
    – Juan Ignacio Sánchez
    Nov 10 at 15:16










  • does not this solve your problem? please explain to me on what you are stuck
    – Juan Ignacio Sánchez
    Nov 10 at 15:20










  • Oh I see what you mean. Perform the replace and then search using that string. Yes that is what I needed. Thank you.
    – quixote
    Nov 10 at 15:42
















1












1








1






You should use something like this:



re.search(r'bsomeW+phraseb', text)



  • 'W' means non-word character


  • '+' means one or more times



In case you have a given phrase in a variable, you could try this before:



some_phrase = some_phrase.replace(r' ', r'W+')





share|improve this answer














You should use something like this:



re.search(r'bsomeW+phraseb', text)



  • 'W' means non-word character


  • '+' means one or more times



In case you have a given phrase in a variable, you could try this before:



some_phrase = some_phrase.replace(r' ', r'W+')






share|improve this answer














share|improve this answer



share|improve this answer








edited Nov 10 at 14:46

























answered Nov 10 at 14:39









Juan Ignacio Sánchez

316111




316111












  • some_phrase = some_phrase.replace(r' ', r'W+') prints 'someW+phrase'.
    – quixote
    Nov 10 at 15:10










  • finally you put b at the begining and the end.
    – Juan Ignacio Sánchez
    Nov 10 at 15:16










  • does not this solve your problem? please explain to me on what you are stuck
    – Juan Ignacio Sánchez
    Nov 10 at 15:20










  • Oh I see what you mean. Perform the replace and then search using that string. Yes that is what I needed. Thank you.
    – quixote
    Nov 10 at 15:42




















  • some_phrase = some_phrase.replace(r' ', r'W+') prints 'someW+phrase'.
    – quixote
    Nov 10 at 15:10










  • finally you put b at the begining and the end.
    – Juan Ignacio Sánchez
    Nov 10 at 15:16










  • does not this solve your problem? please explain to me on what you are stuck
    – Juan Ignacio Sánchez
    Nov 10 at 15:20










  • Oh I see what you mean. Perform the replace and then search using that string. Yes that is what I needed. Thank you.
    – quixote
    Nov 10 at 15:42


















some_phrase = some_phrase.replace(r' ', r'W+') prints 'someW+phrase'.
– quixote
Nov 10 at 15:10




some_phrase = some_phrase.replace(r' ', r'W+') prints 'someW+phrase'.
– quixote
Nov 10 at 15:10












finally you put b at the begining and the end.
– Juan Ignacio Sánchez
Nov 10 at 15:16




finally you put b at the begining and the end.
– Juan Ignacio Sánchez
Nov 10 at 15:16












does not this solve your problem? please explain to me on what you are stuck
– Juan Ignacio Sánchez
Nov 10 at 15:20




does not this solve your problem? please explain to me on what you are stuck
– Juan Ignacio Sánchez
Nov 10 at 15:20












Oh I see what you mean. Perform the replace and then search using that string. Yes that is what I needed. Thank you.
– quixote
Nov 10 at 15:42






Oh I see what you mean. Perform the replace and then search using that string. Yes that is what I needed. Thank you.
– quixote
Nov 10 at 15:42




















draft saved

draft discarded




















































Thanks for contributing an answer to Stack Overflow!


  • Please be sure to answer the question. Provide details and share your research!

But avoid



  • Asking for help, clarification, or responding to other answers.

  • Making statements based on opinion; back them up with references or personal experience.


To learn more, see our tips on writing great answers.





Some of your past answers have not been well-received, and you're in danger of being blocked from answering.


Please pay close attention to the following guidance:


  • Please be sure to answer the question. Provide details and share your research!

But avoid



  • Asking for help, clarification, or responding to other answers.

  • Making statements based on opinion; back them up with references or personal experience.


To learn more, see our tips on writing great answers.




draft saved


draft discarded














StackExchange.ready(
function () {
StackExchange.openid.initPostLogin('.new-post-login', 'https%3a%2f%2fstackoverflow.com%2fquestions%2f53239841%2fpython-3-regex-string-matching-ignore-whitespace-and-string-punctuation%23new-answer', 'question_page');
}
);

Post as a guest















Required, but never shown





















































Required, but never shown














Required, but never shown












Required, but never shown







Required, but never shown

































Required, but never shown














Required, but never shown












Required, but never shown







Required, but never shown







Popular posts from this blog

Schultheiß

Verwaltungsgliederung Dänemarks

Liste der Kulturdenkmale in Wilsdruff