How to add an integer into this Regex in Python without hard coding the integer?

Question

I want to eventually be able to increment an integer within my Regex, but the braces are preventing me from doing so.

So far I have:

start = 6
m = re.search(r"(.{{n},}).*?\1".format(n=start), s)
return m.group(1)

However, I get `ValueError: Single '}' encountered in format string

I am using Python 2.7.

Answer 1

What about using a different method of string formatting:

m = re.search(r"({.%s,}).*?\1" % start, s)