How to split query string using Multiple Delimiter (=, !=, >=) using regex

Question

I want to split query string which might have multiple delimiter.

My strings are, book_id=123&start_date>=2023-09-12&end_date<=2023-09-14&status!=return

We have 6 delimiters, =, !=, >, <, >=, <=

I want to split string if any one of the above delimiter were found in a string.

First, I split string using '&' then i tried,

re.findall('[^=!=><>=<=\s]+|[=!=><>=<=]', 'sample!=2023-09-01') and i got this, ['sample', '!', '=', '2023-09-01']

re.findall('[^=!=><>=<=\s]+|[=!=><>=<=]', 'sample=2023-09-01') ['sample', '=', '2023-09-01']

response is uneven.

I want key, delim, val = ['sample', '!=', '2023-09-01']

instead of ['sample', '!', '=', '2023-09-01'].

My previous regex expression was, re.split('[=|!=|>|<|>=|<=]', param) this also gave me same result.

I referred: regex split by multiple delimiter

Answer 1

If the key value pairs are separated with a & symbol, I suggest splitting the string with that symbol first, and then use re.split with a (!?=|[><]=?) pattern that matches and captures into Group 1 all the six operators you listed:

[re.split(r'(!?=|[><]=?)', x) for x in text.split('&')]

See the regex demo. Note that re.split keeps all the captured substrings. Pattern details:

• !?= - an optional ! and then a =
• | - or
• [><]=? - <, > or <= or >=.

See also a Python demo:

import re
text = "book_id=123&start_date>=2023-09-12&end_date<=2023-09-14&status!=return"
print( [re.split(r'(!?=|[><]=?)', x) for x in  text.split('&')] )

Output:

[['book_id', '=', '123'], ['start_date', '>=', '2023-09-12'], ['end_date', '<=', '2023-09-14'], ['status', '!=', 'return']]