Overlapping regex matches

Question

I\'m trying to create the following regular expression: return a string between AUG and (UAG or UGA or UAA) from a follow

Answer 1

Unfortunately the re module does not offer support for overlapping matches at the moment, but you can easily break the solution down like so:

'AGCCAUGUAGCUAACUCAGGUUACAUGGGGAUGACCCCGCGACUUGGAUUAGAGUCUCUUUUGGAAUAAGCCUGAAUGAUCCGAGUAGCAUCUCAG'
matches = []

for m in re.finditer('AUG', str):
    for n in re.finditer('(UAG)|(UGA)|(UAA)', str[m.start():]):
        matches.append(str[m.start()+3:m.start()+n.end()-3]

print matches