Python RegEx get specific text

Question

I'm new to RegEx. I am using python to go through a web page and pick out certain text. I have been able to pick out part of what I need with some extra character attached. In the example below I am trying to get this expression: "Need This"

import re

test = '<area alt=Need This <span class=;viewot;>view 1</span>||tin view:<br /> ' \
       '<div class=sadfca3 24swcdsa c4566 54dscz>' \
       '<span class=asafwef1 41sd fd3532 safwef>' \
        '<img class=sfecs 234af wefw47 5awef>' \
        '</span> ' \
        '<span class=sad536 fwfad23 4s214 fsadfw>' \
        '<img class=&we234 fsafsdf 2323 asdfsd>' \
        '</span>' \
        '<span class=afasui2 34 ewiasd23 4fjlwe;>' \
        '<img class=sfawejac2 42jk hewwef32 4uafasd>' \
        '</span> ' \
        '<span class=gdfjuia w8 aw ijfaw a909>' \
        '<img class=asfwejhjdkh f 8sd 8 awiosa;f98a 8a' \
        '</span> <div class=afkj waj 98u2oi kjaf09></div>" href="jkhafu.php">'

print("findall")
print(re.findall(r'<area alt=?.*<span class=', str(test), re.I|re.M))
print("finditer")
print(re.finditer(r'<area alt=+.*<span class=', str(test), re.I|re.M))
print("match")
print(re.match(r'<area alt=+.*<span class=', str(test), re.I|re.M))
print("search")
print(re.search(r'<area alt=+.*<span class=', str(test), re.I|re.M))
print("split")
print(re.split(r'<area alt=+.*<span class=', str(test), re.I|re.M))

re.match and re.seach get close to what I am needing. Here is the result from the above example:

findall
['<area alt=Need This <span class=&quot;view&quot;>view 1</span>||time to spend in view:<br /> <div class=sadfca3 24swcdsa c4566 54dscz><span class=asafwef1 41sd fd3532 safwef><img class=sfecs 234af wefw47 5awef></span> <span class=sad536 fwfad23 4s214 fsadfw><img class=&we234 fsafsdf 2323 asdfsd></span><span class=afasui2 34 ewiasd23 4fjlwe;><img class=sfawejac2 42jk hewwef32 4uafasd></span> <span class=']
finditer
<callable_iterator object at 0x00493750>
match
<_sre.SRE_Match object; span=(0, 405), match='<area alt=Need This <span class=&quot;view&quot;>v>
search
<_sre.SRE_Match object; span=(0, 405), match='<area alt=Need This <span class=&quot;view&quot;>v>
split
['', 'gdfjuia w8 aw ijfaw a909><img class=asfwejhjdkh f 8sd 8 awiosa;f98a 8a</span> <div class=afkj waj 98u2oi kjaf09></div>" href="jkhafu.php">']

How can I use RegEx with python 3.4 to only get "Need This" from the string named test in the example above?

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

Relevant if you're ever doing anything more complicated with html parsing: http://stackoverflow.com/a/1732454/406772 — Sajjan Singh, Sep 02 '14 at 23:17
The HTML you have is not actually valid. Share the link to the webpage, or provide the relevant web page html as it is. — alecxe, Sep 02 '14 at 23:17

Avinash Raj · Accepted Answer · 2014-09-02T23:43:52.063

3

Use a lookbehind and lookahead assertion,

(?<=area alt=).*?(?=\s+<span class=)

Code:

>>> m = re.search(r'(?<=area alt=).*?(?=\s+<span class=)', test).group()
>>> m
'Need This'

edited Sep 02 '14 at 23:43

answered Sep 02 '14 at 23:18

Avinash Raj

172,303
28
230
274

Federico Piazza · Answer 2 · 2014-09-02T23:34:41.240

2

You can use this regex:

area alt=([\w\s]+)<

Working demo

enter image description here

The code is:

import re
p = re.compile(ur'area alt=([\w\s]+)<')
test_str = u"YOUR TEXT HERE"
m = re.match(p, test_str)
print m.group(1)

edited Sep 02 '14 at 23:34

answered Sep 02 '14 at 23:16

Federico Piazza

30,085
15
87
123

Python RegEx get specific text

2 Answers2