Python: regex whole pattern substitution

Question

I'm practicing on python regex substitution with macros in property sheet. In a brute-force way, I'm doing something like:

config_regex = re.compile(r'$(Configuration)')
test_str = r'<Import Project="$(SolutionDir)\PropertySheets\Optimization.$(Configuration).props" />'
print config_regex.sub(r'Release', test_str)

However, the macro in my test string doesn't seem to be substituted. It still prints:

<Import Project="$(SolutionDir)\PropertySheets\Optimization.$(Configuration).props" />

Please help me out a little. Thanks.

Why use a regex here? Anyway, `$`, `(` and `)` must be escaped since they are special regex metacharacters. — Wiktor Stribiżew, Nov 08 '16 at 23:47
You should use double quotes to escape regex meta-characters like so: `config_regex = re.compile(r"\$$Configuration$")` — Oluwafemi Sule, Nov 09 '16 at 00:04

Axel Lijdens · Answer 1 · 2016-11-09T00:52:14.577

0

EDIT: (Tim's comment is right) If the regex starts with $ it will try to match at the ~~beginning~~ end of the string

Also, the parentheses have a special meaning in the exp (capture)

You should try with \ before those characters, or use the escape function in the re module

edited Nov 09 '16 at 00:52

answered Nov 08 '16 at 23:51

Axel Lijdens

21
6

`$` matches at the end of the string. – Tim Nov 09 '16 at 00:29

Python: regex whole pattern substitution

1 Answers1