Python regex find all substrings between two character pairs

Question

I have tried previous answers here on SO. I was able to find only one subset of several.

here is the code and sample that I am working on.

s = "{| mySting0 |}  The {| mySting1 |}  The {| mySting2 |}  The {| mySting3 |}  make it work "

result = re.findall('{\|(.*)|}', s)

the output is,

[' mySting0 |}  The {| mySting1 |}  The {| mySting2 |}  The {| mySting3 |}  make it work ']

What am I doing wrong?

"What am I doing wrong?" - using a greedy regex, not escaping the second pipe character with a backslash. — TessellatingHeckler
– TessellatingHeckler, Commented Sep 30, 2016 at 19:51

anubhava · Accepted Answer · 2016-09-30 19:50:58Z

7

You can use this regex:

>>> s = "{| mySting0 |}  The {| mySting1 |}  The {| mySting2 |}  The {| mySting3 |}  make it work "
>>> re.findall(r'{\|(.*?)\|}', s)
[' mySting0 ', ' mySting1 ', ' mySting2 ', ' mySting3 ']

Changes are:

Use lazy quantifier .*? instead of greedy .*
Excape 2nd | as well in your regex

answered Sep 30, 2016 at 19:50

anubhava

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