How to show full results, rather than matched text from regex searches in python

Question

I am creating a script that searches for a file based on a keyword, my output should be the whole observation, rather than just the matched text, but I'm finding .group doesn't work on this.

import re 
import os 
 
pers_info = pd.read_csv(r".....StateWorkforceMailingList_2-7-19a.csv",encoding='utf-8')

Pers_info['State'] = Texas, Florida etc... 

 files=os.listdir(r"....\State Files")
 
Files = list of WORKFORCE_2017_ALABAMA_FILE.xlsx,...,n

matches=re.findall(pers_info.State[4], files.replace("_", " "),re.I)
print(match) 

My intended output is WORKFORCE_2017_ALABAMA_FILE.xlsx Instead I get 'Alabama'

Should I try a boolean mask ?

Answer 1

Use

>>> import pandas as pd
>>> Pers_info = pd.DataFrame({'State':['Texas', 'Alabama', 'Florida']})
>>> Files = ['WORKFORCE_2017_ALABAMA_FILE.xlsx', 'WORKFORCE_2017_FILE.xlsx']
>>> pattern = re.compile(rf'(?<![^\W_])(?:{"|".join(Pers_info["State"].to_list())})(?![^\W_])', re.I)
>>> list(filter(pattern.search, Files))
['WORKFORCE_2017_ALABAMA_FILE.xlsx']

See regex proof.

EXPLANATION

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
  (?<!                     look behind to see if there is not:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    [^\W_]                   any character except: non-word
                             characters (all but a-z, A-Z, 0-9, _),
                             '_'
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
  )                        end of look-behind
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
  (?:                      group, but do not capture:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Texas                    'Texas'
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
   |                        OR
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Alabama                  'Alabama'
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
   |                        OR
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Florida                  'Florida'
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
  )                        end of grouping
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
  (?!                      look ahead to see if there is not:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    [^\W_]                   any character except: non-word
                             characters (all but a-z, A-Z, 0-9, _),
                             '_'
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
  )                        end of look-ahead