Python Regex Twitter username including @

Question

So I have found this regex:

(?<=^|(?<=[^a-zA-Z0-9-_\.]))@([A-Za-z]+[A-Za-z0-9-_]+)

from this question: regex for Twitter username

But this ignores the actual "@" in the handle when returning. I've tried to edit this to include @ without success. I want to return "@username" instead of "username". How do I edit this regex to include "@"?

`(?<![\w.-])@[A-Za-z][\w-]+`, see https://regex101.com/r/Pg8NHP/3 — Wiktor Stribiżew, Dec 04 '18 at 14:29
How much experience with regular expressions do you have? Are you sure you want to rely on a tech you seem understand so little? — Micha Wiedenmann, Dec 04 '18 at 14:29
Please explain what you mean by "returning". Regular expressions don't return anything. Are you talking about matching or maybe capturing groups? — Micha Wiedenmann, Dec 04 '18 at 14:30
I don't have much experience but your suggestion works fine, thanks! — BananaBackend, Dec 07 '18 at 10:05

score 2 · Accepted Answer · answered Dec 04 '18 at 15:29

You basically need to put @ inside the capturing group you are returning. However, the pattern is highly cryptic and can be greatly simplified.

(?<![\w.-])@[A-Za-z][\w-]+

See the regex demo

Details

(?<![\w.-]) - a negative lookbehind that fails the match if, immediately to the left of the current location, there is a word char, or . or -
@ - a @ char
[A-Za-z] - an ASCII letter
[\w-]+ - 1 or more word chars or hyphens.

In Python 3, compile the pattern with re.ASCII flag to make \w only match ASCII letters and digits.

Python Regex Twitter username including @

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