Hi I need to match cola xx from :ca:cr:pr cola xx but also be able to get cola xx when no ca:cr:pr occures. The number of tags starting with : can be different and their length too.
>>> string
':ca:cr:pr cola xx'
>>> re.findall("\w+", string)
['ca', 'cr', 'pr', 'cola', 'xx']
>>> re.findall(":\w+", string)
[':ca', ':cr', ':pr']
>>> re.findall("^(:\w+)", string)
[':ca']
I was trying to use also lookbehinds (http://runnable.com/Uqc1Tqv_MVNfAAGN/lookahead-and-lookbehind-in-regular-expressions-in-python-for-regex) but unsecesffully.
>>> re.findall(r"(\s\w+)(?!:)",string)
[' cola', ' xx']
>>> string="cola"
>>> re.findall(r"(\s\w+)(?!:)",string)
[]
That is when no tags, only cola it is not detected.
How can I improve my regex to work as expected?
desired examples once more:
:c cola xx -> cola xx
:ca:c cola xx -> cola xx
:ca:cr:pr cola xx -> cola xx
cola xx -> cola xx
cola -> cola
I believe something like this should work, if I understood your requirement correctly:
(?<!:)\b\w+
In code:
results = re.findall(r'(?<!:)\b\w+', string)