Python regex if all whole words in string

Question

I have the following a string, I need to check if

the string contains App2 and iPhone,
but not App and iPhone

I wrote the following:

campaign_keywords = "App2 iPhone"
my_string = "[Love]App2 iPhone Argentina"
pattern = re.compile("r'\b" + campaign_keywords + "\b")
print pattern.search(my_string)

It prints None. Why?

Is that `"r'...` an attempt at denoting a raw string literal, with the `r` as part of the string?... — TigerhawkT3, Nov 28 '16 at 09:49
the above code gives me `AttributeError: '_sre.SRE_Pattern' object has no attribute 'matches'` — RomanPerekhrest, Nov 28 '16 at 09:50
@TigerhawkT3 no - r is not part of the string. it's what I saw in examples as the way to write regex in python — Dejell, Nov 28 '16 at 09:52
`r` should be outside of the string, try this `r"\b%s\b" % (campaign_keywords)` — lycuid, Nov 28 '16 at 09:54

nu11p01n73R · Accepted Answer · 2016-11-28T09:57:23.757

2

The raw string notation is wrong, the r should not be inside the the quotes. and the second \b should also be a raw string.
The match function tries to match at the start of the string. You need to use search or findall

Difference between re.search and re.match

Example

 >>> pattern = re.compile(r"\b" + campaign_keywords + r"\b")

 >>> pattern.findall(my_string)
 ['App2 iPhone']

 >>> pattern.match(my_string)

 >>> pattern.search(my_string)
 <_sre.SRE_Match object at 0x10ca2fbf8>
 >>> match = pattern.search(my_string)
 >>> match.group()
 'App2 iPhone'

edited Nov 28 '16 at 09:57

answered Nov 28 '16 at 09:55

nu11p01n73R

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yes. that was my mistake. I didn't see from other questions how to use it with variable. Will fix it soon – Dejell Nov 28 '16 at 09:56
@Dejell I hope it is working with the `search` or `findall`. – nu11p01n73R Nov 28 '16 at 10:00
yes it does! thank you! – Dejell Nov 28 '16 at 10:05

Python regex if all whole words in string

1 Answers1