Python Forum

Hi,

I have following text stored as a string:

Output:
final class myClass1 {
const APPLICATION1 = 1;
const APPLICATION2 = 2;
}
final class myClass2 {
const APPLICATION3 = 3;
const APPLICATION4 = 4;
}
final class myClass3 {
const APPLICATION5 = 5;
const APPLICATION6 = 6;
}

I am trying to search the middle block (myClass2), but this pattern does not work:

block = re.search(r'final\sclass\smyClass2\s{([ˆ}]+)}', text, re.DOTALL)

while the next one matches everything up until the very last curly bracket:

block = re.search(r'final\sclass\smyClass2\s{(.+)}', text, re.DOTALL)

Apparently the problem is with the [ˆ}]+ section of the pattern.

Why does it not work as expected - to match any character except of ending curly bracket??

Something like this.

>>> import re
>>> 
>>> r = re.search(r"myClass2\s{(.*?)}", data, re.MULTILINE | re.DOTALL)
>>> print(r.group(1).strip())

Output:
const APPLICATION3 = 3;
const APPLICATION4 = 4;

Ah, damn! the greedy and non-greedy quantifiers, I totally forgot about them.
Thanks a lot for the tip and reminder, it works now as expected ;-)