PHP regular expression not working in Python

Question

I have this bit of code:

import re
word = 'baz'
regexp = re.compile(r'a[s|z|d]')
if regexp.search(word) is not None:
    print 'matched'
else:
    print 'not matched'

Which I got from SO. That works and prints matched. Now I am trying to get the same thing to work for a different regex which I've got working in PHP.

This /[a-zA-Z0-9_.-]+$ regex works to filter out these results

mixed_CASE_word_00008908908808908080 # correctly matches
word_with_characters_I_dont_want-(1) # correctly does not match

I want to change the above python code to do the same but I'm not familiar with python and I'm struggling. I've so far got:

import re
word = 'mixed_CASE_word_00008908908808908080'
regexp = re.compile(r'/[a-zA-Z0-9_.-]+$')
if regexp.search(word) is not None:
    print 'matched'
else:
    print 'not matched'

But this gives me the following result:

mixed_CASE_word_00008908908808908080 # not matched
word_with_characters_I_dont_want-(1) # not matched

And I want the code to produce this result

mixed_CASE_word_00008908908808908080 // matched
word_with_characters_I_dont_want-(1) // not matched

Any ideas where I am going wrong?

You already have 2 answers, but anyways, this is the tool I always use to check my regex: regex101.com (they should actually call it regex911, because by the time I use it I'm already freaking out, lol) — Roberto
– Roberto, Commented Jan 24, 2015 at 15:21
change the above to a[szd] if you actually mean as or az or ad — Avinash Raj
– Avinash Raj, Commented Jan 24, 2015 at 15:30
Thanks guys. Most helpful and I will checkout regex101.com too! — Nadine
– Nadine, Commented Jan 24, 2015 at 15:31

Avinash Raj · Accepted Answer · 2015-01-24 15:25:52Z

3

I think you wrongly mean / as line start. Replace / with ^ (start of the line anchor).

regexp = re.compile(r'^[a-zA-Z0-9_.-]+$')

And note that [a-zA-Z0-9_] would be written as \w. So you could reduce the above regex to r'^[\w.-]+$'.

edited Jan 24, 2015 at 15:25

answered Jan 24, 2015 at 15:20

Avinash Raj

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1 Comment

Nadine Over a year ago

This worked! You sir are a genius. I will accept as soon as I can :)

user2555451 · Accepted Answer · 2015-01-24 15:20:09Z

3

Python regular expressions do not start with / like in some other languages. So, Python is trying to match a literal / character. You need to remove this:

regexp = re.compile(r'[a-zA-Z0-9_.-]+$')

Demo:

>>> import re
>>> word = 'mixed_CASE_word_00008908908808908080'
>>> regexp = re.compile(r'[a-zA-Z0-9_.-]+$')
>>> regexp.search(word)
<_sre.SRE_Match object; span=(0, 36), match='mixed_CASE_word_00008908908808908080'>
>>>

answered Jan 24, 2015 at 15:20

user2555451

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