Python - How to take arbitrary string in path to a file via regex

Question

I have a path that I have assigned to a string:

string = 'pathos/llb_cube/uni/ToolSub.pm'

However the 'llb' prefix can be different string for each computer and I need to assign it to an arbitrary value that will read whatever the user's computer has set for this specific directory such as:

string = 'pathos/*_cube/uni/ToolSub.pm'

I cannot figure out what function or regex to use for this however.

"read whatever the user's computer has set for this specific directory" -- what does this mean? Have you solved this part yourself? — Denziloe
– Denziloe, Commented Sep 4, 2018 at 20:52
Have a look at pathlib which supports globs of this type. Better suited than a regex. — dawg
– dawg, Commented Sep 4, 2018 at 21:18

N Chauhan · Accepted Answer · 2018-09-04 20:52:56Z

1

You can use the dot . to mean 'any character':

string = r'pathos/.*_cube/uni/ToolSub\.pm'

I escaped the dot at the end of the string.
The * asterisk denotes 0 or more repetitions.
I used a raw string literal: r'...' so that I can write backslashes without having to escape them.

If you need a certain number of characters use .{x}. Now you can use regex to match your paths

for path in path_list:
    match = re.match(string, path)
    if match:
        print(match.group(0))

answered Sep 4, 2018 at 20:52

N Chauhan

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1 Comment

FranceMadrid Over a year ago

So the program is returning the string as simply just pathos/.*_cube/uni/ToolSub\.pm rather than recognizing '.*' to be a regex. :( Therefore when I try to check if the file path exists it is not recognizing because it is reading '.*_cube'

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