Python regex get tag content not tag name

Question

I have following problem: I have some HTML code and I need to get tag content. I don't want to use millions of substring or something like that. I want to use regex but I am having problem with filtering tags with classes, ids,... or without anything. Here's my regex:

match = re.search('(?<=<span(.+)?>)(.*)(?=</span>)', '<span class="red">color</span>')

Python throws following error

sre_constants.error: look-behind requires fixed-width pattern

I want to get content from

<span class="red">color</span>

and from

<span>color</span>

Thanks everyone from help!

Possible duplicate of [RegEx match open tags except XHTML self-contained tags](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/1732348/regex-match-open-tags-except-xhtml-self-contained-tags) — arco444, Dec 15 '16 at 11:18
must you use regex ? why not a html parser like beautifull soup — Tobey, Dec 15 '16 at 11:18

score 1 · Answer 1 · answered Dec 15 '16 at 11:26

1

The simple answer: Use findall, skip the look-behind and get the capture group.

<span(.+)?>(.*?)</span>

But this will fail in many cases. E.g. nested tags, a string containing the text </span>, and so on...

answered Dec 15 '16 at 11:26

SamWhan

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Python regex get tag content not tag name

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