Python regex substitute between parenthesis

Question

I need to read in lines from a text file, basically everything after and including the first open parenthesis can be removed with an empty string. I came up with a regex:

>>> line = "Bar Harbor (College of the Atlantic)"
>>> re.sub(r"(.*) ?\(.*$","\1", line)
'\x01'

The following works, but excludes lines that do not have parentheses which is not according the specs (so it does not work)

match = re.match("(.*?) ?\(.*$",line)
if match:
    towns.append(match.group(1))

What am i doing wrong in te first substitute? Regexs are not necessary, I just need to remove everything after the first parentheses, so also if there is more than one way I'm also interested.

If all after *first* `(` should be removed, use `re.sub(r"\(.*","", line)`, why add `(.*) ?`? — Wiktor Stribiżew, Apr 16 '18 at 20:23
Thanks @WiktorStribiżew I hope it's because I spent too much time behind the pc, maybe i should get sleep. — dr jerry, Apr 16 '18 at 20:25
I think it is close to [How to remove all characters after a specific character in python?](https://stackoverflow.com/questions/904746/how-to-remove-all-characters-after-a-specific-character-in-python) — Wiktor Stribiżew, Apr 16 '18 at 20:29

score 0 · Answer 1 · answered Apr 16 '18 at 20:29

0

Here's a way to do it without regular expressions:

In [1]: x = "Bar Harbor (College of the Atlantic)"

In [6]: idx = x.find('(')

In [7]: x[:idx] if idx > 0 else x
Out[7]: 'Bar Harbor '

answered Apr 16 '18 at 20:29

ffledgling

11,502
8
47
69

This one [has already been posted](https://stackoverflow.com/a/904753/3832970). – Wiktor Stribiżew Apr 16 '18 at 20:30
@WiktorStribiżew Didn't know it was a dupe, feel free to close as duplicate. – ffledgling Apr 16 '18 at 20:31

Python regex substitute between parenthesis

1 Answers1