Extract only first match using python regular expression

Question

I have a string as follows:

course_name = "Post Graduate Certificate Programme in Retail Management (PGCPRM) (Online)"

I want to extract only the 'PGCPRM' or whatever within the value within the first parenthesis and have a new course name as follows:

course_name_new = "Post Graduate Certificate Programme in Retail Management (Online)"

@dmg No, I want to extract the value within the first parentheses whatever it is. — Iqbal, Jan 19 '15 at 11:55
So you need to extract the abbreviation that is within parenthesis, or whatever it is in the first parenthesis? — dmg, Jan 19 '15 at 12:01
It looks to me like you want to **remove** the string (including the parentheses) within the first set of parentheses. Saying you want to **extract** it implies that you want to _save_ the string within the first parentheses. — PM 2Ring, Jan 19 '15 at 12:02
@Iqbal so if it was "Blah (Online)" - does it become "Blah" - or remain the same as that's the only stuff between parenthesis? — Jon Clements, Jan 19 '15 at 12:07
So whether `"Blah (Something) (Online)"` becomes `"Blah__(Online)"` or `"Blah_(Online)"` (where "_" denotes space) is the same for you? — dmg, Jan 19 '15 at 13:05
But your question is vague and poorly asked. SO is meant to be a searchable repository of good questions and good answers. Stop being selfish and fix your question. — dmg, Jan 19 '15 at 13:37

Mazdak · Answer 1 · 2015-01-19T12:04:45.577

You can use str.replace() :

>>> course_name = "Post Graduate Certificate Programme in Retail Management (PGCPRM) (Online)"
>>> course_name.replace('(PGCPRM) ','')
'Post Graduate Certificate Programme in Retail Management (Online)'

edit: if you want to replace the word before (Online) you need regex and a positive look-behind:

>>> re.sub(r'(\(\w+\) )(?=\(Online\))','',course_name)
'Post Graduate Certificate Programme in Retail Management (Online)'

Or if you want to remove the first parentheses use following :

>>> re.sub(r'(\(\w+\) ).*?','',course_name)
'Post Graduate Certificate Programme in Retail Management (Online)'

and for extract it use re.search :

>>> re.search(r'(\(.*?\))',course_name).group(0)
'(PGCPRM)'

No, I want to extract the value within the first parentheses whatever it is. Sorry for not mentioning that in the question. I will update this @kasra — Iqbal, Jan 19 '15 at 11:55

score 2 · Accepted Answer · edited Jan 19 '15 at 12:03

2

Pretty simple:

In [8]: course_name
Out[8]: 'Post Graduate Certificate Programme in Retail Management (PGCPRM) (Online)'

In [9]: print re.sub('\([A-Z]+\)\s*', '', course_name)
Post Graduate Certificate Programme in Retail Management (Online)

In [17]: print re.search('\(([A-Z]+)\)\s*', course_name).groups()[0]
PGCPRM

edited Jan 19 '15 at 12:03

Bhargav Rao

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answered Jan 19 '15 at 11:55

Dmitry Nedbaylo

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score 1 · Answer 3 · answered Jan 19 '15 at 11:59

To extract value within first parenthesis

>>> course_name = "Post Graduate Certificate Programme in Retail Management (PGCPRM) (Online)"
>>> x = re.search(r'\(.*?\)',course_name).group()
>>> x
'(PGCPRM)'

And then to replace

>>> course_name.replace(x,'')
'Post Graduate Certificate Programme in Retail Management  (Online)'

Extract only first match using python regular expression

3 Answers3

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