Python - Regex find all matches in string and replace

Question

I have a problem on replacing string using regex, seem I can't get it to work

string = "<font x=''>test</font> <font y=''>test2</font> <font z=''>test3</font>"
if re.search("(<font .*?>)", string, re.IGNORECASE):
    r = re.compile(r"<font (?P<name>.*?)>.*?</font>", re.IGNORECASE)
    string = r.sub(r'', string)

For some reason all the regex deletes the entire string ''. It should return as test test2 test3

@AvinashRaj Copied wrong code from notepad. Sorry

Daniel Hyuuga
– Daniel Hyuuga

2014-10-10 07:43:31 +00:00
Commented Oct 10, 2014 at 7:43 — Daniel Hyuuga
– Daniel Hyuuga, Commented Oct 10, 2014 at 7:43
You can directly use re.findall and do this in one step

vks
– vks

2014-10-10 08:00:00 +00:00
Commented Oct 10, 2014 at 8:00 — vks
– vks, Commented Oct 10, 2014 at 8:00

Avinash Raj · Accepted Answer · 2014-10-10 07:53:33Z

5

Here it is,

>>> import re
>>> string = "<font x=''>test</font> <font y=''>test2</font> <font z=''>test3</font>"
>>> if re.search("(<font .*?>)", string, re.IGNORECASE):
...     r = re.compile(r"</?font.*?>", re.IGNORECASE)
...     string = r.sub(r'', string)
... 
>>> string
'test test2 test3'

DEMO

Pattern Explanation:

</?font.*?> This regex would match all the opening and closing font tags. By adding ? after the / will make the previous character that is / as optional.
.*? Will do a shortest possible match. ? after the * would force the regex engine to do a shortest possible match because * is greedy by default. It could consume so many chars as much as possible.
> Matches the > symbol literally.
re.IGNORECASE is called case-insensitive modifier.

edited Oct 10, 2014 at 7:53

answered Oct 10, 2014 at 7:45

Avinash Raj

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4 Comments

Daniel Hyuuga Over a year ago

Thanks. Can you explain to me the r = re.compile(r"</?font.*?>", re.IGNORECASE) part please?

radtek Over a year ago

So this does multiple searches right? With serchall it does one search. I am using searchall but at the same time I want to replace all whilst still getting the searchall results all in 1 time without loops.

Avinash Raj Over a year ago

pls ask it as new question.

Halil Sen Over a year ago

regex101.com link is very helpful!

vks · Accepted Answer · 2014-10-10 09:15:14Z

1

>([^<]*)<\/

you can use it as

y="<font x=''>test</font> <font y=''>test2</font> <font z=''>test3</font>"
x=re.findall(r"(?<=>)([^<]*)(?=<\/)",y) 
str=" ".join(x)
print str

See demo

http://regex101.com/r/xT7yD8/6

edited Oct 10, 2014 at 9:15

answered Oct 10, 2014 at 7:59

vks

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