Python split string on regex

Question

I'm trying to split a string using a regular expression.

Friday 1Friday 11 JAN 11

The output I want to achieve is

['Friday 1', 'Friday 11', ' JAN 11']

My snippet so far is not producing the desired results:

>>> import re
>>> p = re.compile(r'(Sunday|Monday|Tuesday|Wednesday|Thursday|Friday|Saturday)\s*\d{1,2}')
>>> filter(None, p.split('Friday 1Friday 11 JAN 11'))
['Friday', 'Friday', ' JAN 11']

What am I doing wrong with my regex?

Answer 1

The problem is the capturing parentheses. This syntax: (?:...) makes them non-capturing. Try:

p = re.compile(r'((?:Friday|Saturday)\s*\d{1,2})')

• Jared Knipp: That's exactly what I was after! I knew it was something small. Thanks
• Jared Knipp: I was getting close with p = re.compile(r'((Friday|Saturday)\s*\d{1,2})') but didn't understand why I was getting 2 results for each group. Makes complete sense now though, it was producing the result + the group name back reference.

Answer 2

You can also use 're.findall' function.

\>>> val 
'Friday 1Friday 11 JAN 11 ' 
\>>> pat = re.compile(r'(\w+\s*\d*)') 
\>>> m=re.findall(pat,val) 
\>>> m 
['Friday 1', 'Friday 11', 'JAN 11']

Answer 3

p = re.compile(r'(Friday\s\d+|Saturday)')