Python Regular expression to extract a substring

Question

I have a string

" request.addParameter('page','/TMRMKUOHY/RPM/Store/srrreVkew.jsp?resODFlag','N','',true,false); ".

I want to extract the part

" '/TMRMKUOHY/RPM/Store/srrreVkew.jsp?resODFlag' "

out of this string. I tried several combinations of regex (using re module in python) but can't find the exact desired pattern that gives me the substring out of the main string.

• Jerry: Can you put those combinations of regex that you tried into your question?
• nu11p01n73R: Does the string always begin with a /
• harveyD: pat = re.search("\'\/[a-z]*[A-Z]*[./+]",string1) pat = re.search("\'\/(.+)\?(.\w)",string1) pat = re.search("\'\/(.+)?(.\w*)",string1) pat = re.search("\'\/(.+)?(.\W*)",string1) pat = re.search("\'\/(.+)?(\w*\d*)\'",string1) pat = re.search("\'\/(.+)?(\w*\d*)\'[^,]",string1) pat = re.search("\'\/(\w+)?'",string1)
• Jerry: @Harvey In the question please, not in comments. You can edit your question and add that at the end.
• harveyD: @nu11p01n73R It begins with a single quote followed by /

Answer 1

'([^']+)'

You can try this.

Do print re.findall(r"'([^']+)'",x)[1].

Here x is your string.Basically it is extracting the second group.

See demo.

http://regex101.com/r/yG7zB9/2

• harveyD: I didn't. In fact you're a STAR.

Answer 2

Use the regex

'\/[^']+'

The code can be written as

x=" request.addParameter('page','/TMRMKUOHY/RPM/Store/srrreVkew.jsp?resODFlag','N','',true,false); ".
re.findall(r"'\/[^']+'", x)"
["'/TMRMKUOHY/RPM/Store/srrreVkew.jsp?resODFlag'"]

see how the regex works http://regex101.com/r/pK9mI8/1

you can also use search function to search and find the substring matching the pattern as

 re.search(r"'\/[^']+'", x).group()
"'/TMRMKUOHY/RPM/Store/srrreVkew.jsp?resODFlag'"

Answer 3

Seems like you want something like this,

>>> import re
>>> s = " request.addParameter('page','/TMRMKUOHY/RPM/Store/srrreVkew.jsp?resODFlag','N','',true,false); "
>>> re.search(r"'(/[^']*)'", s).group(1)
'/TMRMKUOHY/RPM/Store/srrreVkew.jsp?resODFlag'

Answer 4

You are not forced to use regex you can use split():

>>> s.split(',')[1]
"'/TMRMKUOHY/RPM/Store/srrreVkew.jsp?resODFlag'"

• Kasravnd: yep, for extract a substring you can use some ways that regex is one of them , so if you find this answer useful you can tell this to community by up voting ,