Regex: delete between brackets, but only if below character length

Question

I have strings such as:

this is a text ( with parts in brackets ) . This is another string ( with a very long string between brackets that should not be removed because it is too long being over 100 characters )

Desired output:

this is a text  . This is another string ( with a very long string between brackets that should not be removed because it is too long being over 100 characters )

I can match the bracket content with (with the goal to replace it with an empty string to remove it).

\s\(.+\)\s

Now, if there is no closing bracket, the regex deletes to much text. I would like to delete content between two brackets, but only if the length is < 100 chars. How an I do this with regex? I understand I would need a lookahead expression? I appreciate the help!

Edit: Using the following expression, as suggested doesn't work as solution:

\s\(.+\){1,100}\s

Hi Wiktor, I have tried it however it doesn't work unfortunately. Thanks for your help anyhow! — Franc Weser, Jun 17 '20 at 11:23
The expression you used `\s\(.+\){1,100}\s` counts between 1 and 100 right brackets. What you need is `\s\(.{0,100}\)\s` — Eran, Jun 17 '20 at 11:27

score 0 · Answer 1 · answered Jun 17 '20 at 21:01

Use

\s\([^()]{0,100}\)\s

See proof. Set the limiting quantifier after the [^()] pattern, it matches any character other than parens.

Example code:

import re

test_str = "this is a text ( with parts in brackets ) . This is another string ( with a very long string between brackets that should not be removed because it is too long being over 100 characters )"

print( re.sub(r"\s\([^()]{0,100}\)\s", "", test_str) )

Output:

this is a text. This is another string ( with a very long string between brackets that should not be removed because it is too long being over 100 characters )

Regex: delete between brackets, but only if below character length

1 Answers1