Syntax error The search Function in Python

The search Function in Python

This function searches for first occurrence of RE pattern within string with optional flags.

Syntax

Here is the syntax for this function −

re.search(pattern, string, flags=0)

Here is the description of the parameters −

Sr.No. Parameter & Description
1 pattern
This is the regular expression to be matched.
2 string
This is the string, which would be searched to match the pattern at the beginning of string.
3 flags
You can specify different flags using bitwise OR (|). These are modifiers, which are listed in the table below.

The re.search function returns a match object on success, none on failure. We use group(num) or groups() function of match object to get matched expression.

Sr.No. Match Object Method & Description
1 group(num=0)
This method returns entire match (or specific subgroup num)
2 groups()
This method returns all matching subgroups in a tuple (empty if there weren't any)

Example

 Live Demo

#!/usr/bin/python
import re
line = "Cats are smarter than dogs";
searchObj = re.search( r'(.*) are (.*?) .*', line, re.M|re.I)
if searchObj:
   print "searchObj.group() : ", searchObj.group()
   print "searchObj.group(1) : ", searchObj.group(1)
   print "searchObj.group(2) : ", searchObj.group(2)
else:
   print "Nothing found!!"

Output

When the above code is executed, it produces the following result −

searchObj.group() : Cats are smarter than dogs
searchObj.group(1) : Cats
searchObj.group(2) : smarter
Updated on: 2020-01-30T07:30:15+05:30

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