Regex replace (in Python) - a simpler way?

Question

Any time I want to replace a piece of text that is part of a larger piece of text, I always have to do something like:

\"(?Psome_pattern)(?P<         


        

Answer 1

I believe that the best idea is just to capture in a group whatever you want to replace, and then replace it by using the start and end properties of the captured group.

regards

Adrián

#the pattern will contain the expression we want to replace as the first group
pat = "word1\s(.*)\sword2"   
test = "word1 will never be a word2"
repl = "replace"

import re
m = re.search(pat,test)

if m and m.groups() > 0:
    line = test[:m.start(1)] + repl + test[m.end(1):]
    print line
else:
    print "the pattern didn't capture any text"

This will print: 'word1 will never be a word2'

The group to be replaced could be located in any position of the string.