Regular Expression in Python

Regular Expression in Python

Regular expression in Python is also known as RegEx. It is a sequence of characters that defines a search pattern. It is used to examine whether a string contains the specified search pattern or not. To work with regular expressions, built-in Python module called re needs to imported in the script for RegEx.

 

 

Meta Characters

In Python, meta characters are the special characters that are interpreted in a different way by the RegEx engine. They are listed below in a table:

 

Character Description Example
[] This meta character is used to indicate a set of characters. “[A-Z]”
. This meta character is used to indicate any character but new line. “He.”
^ This meta character is used to indicate starting point of the RegEx. “^Study”
$ This meta character is used to indicate ending point of the RegEx. “Experts!$”
* This meta character is used to indicate zero or more occurrences of the specified character. “Hello*”
+ This meta character is used to indicate one or more occurrences of the specified character. “Hello+”
{} This meta character is used to indicate specified number of occurrences of the specified character. “Hel{2}o”
? This meta character is used to indicate zero or one occurrence of the specified character. “Python?”
| This meta character is used to indicate either or condition. “this|that”
() This meta character is used to indicate grouping of sub-patterns. “(a|b)ayz”
\ This meta character is used to escape all the escape characters along with the other meta characters. “\^”

 

 

Regular Expression in Python Example

# Python program to exemplify regular expressions

import re

String = "Studyexperts!"
x = re.search("^S...........!$", String)
if(x):
  print("Pattern found.")
else:
  print("Pattern not found.")


String = "Studyexperts!."
x = re.search("^S...........!$", String)
if(x):
  print("Pattern found.")
else:
  print("Pattern not found.")

Output:

Pattern found.
Pattern not found.

 

 

Special Sequences

Sequence Description Example
\A This special sequence is used to indicate that the specified characters are at the beginning of the string. “\AYou”
\b This special sequence is used to indicate that the specified characters are at the beginning or at the end of the string. “\bthat”

“that\b”

\B This special sequence is used to indicate that the specified characters are present but not at the beginning or at the end of the string. “\Bthat”

“that\B”

\d This special sequence is used to indicate that the string contains digits. “\d”
\D This special sequence is used to indicate that the string does not contain digits. “\D”
\s This special sequence is used to indicate that the string contains a white space character. “\s”
\S This special sequence is used to indicate that the string does not contain a white space character. “\S”
\w This special sequence is used to indicate that the string contains any word characters which are characters from a to Z, digits from 0-9, and the underscore _ character. “\w”
\W This special sequence is used to indicate that the string does not contain any word characters. “\W”
\Z This special sequence is used to indicate that the specified characters are at the end of the string. “StudyExperts!\Z”

 

 

Sets

A set is a collection of characters placed inside a pair of square brackets with a special meaning.

 

Set Description
[abc] This set is used to indicate that a string should have one of the specified characters (a, b, or c).
[a-d] This set is used to indicate that a string should have one of the specified characters (a, b, c, or d).
[^abc] This set is used to indicate that a string should have any character except for a, b, and c.
[123] This set is used to indicate that a string should have one of the specified digits (1, 2, or 3).
[0-9] This set is used to indicate that a string should have any of the digits between 0 and 9.
[1-8][0-9] This set is used to indicate that a string should have a two digit-number between 10 and 89.
[a-zA-Z] This set is used to indicate that a string should have any alphabetic character between a and z, either lowercase or uppercase.
[+] In sets, +, *, ., |, (), $,{} has no special meaning, so [+] means: return a match for any character in the string.
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