Failing regex, space before and after the "match"

[deanhystad]

Why are you adding all the extra whitespace? Only look for the important stuff.

import re

line = "    Visual ID:          Z2BB417600504  "
pattern = r"Visual ID:\s+(Z[A-Z0-9]{12})"
print(re.search(pattern, line).group(1))

Output:
Z2BB417600504

If you want to match the entire string for some reason.

import re

line = "    Visual ID:          Z2BB417600504  "
pattern = r"^\s*Visual ID:\s+Z[A-Z0-9]{12}\s*$"
print(re.search(pattern, line))

Output:
<re.Match object; span=(0, 39), match='    Visual ID:          Z2BB417600504  '>

That pattern looks a lot like yours. Not sure why you think it doesn't work. Could you post how you are using your pattern and it fails.