python 2.7 re.MULTILINE troubles

Question

I am new to python and I have been trying to change my php regex into python but I have run into some problems with this multiline thing. I have been up and down the internet for the past couple days and I can't seem to make sense of it, if someone could help that would be great. Here is the regex I have made:

mlsTagRegex = re.compile("<td\swidth=\"13%\"\sclass=\"TopHeader\">(.*?)</td>", re.MULTILINE)
tdTags = mlsTagRegex.findall(output.getvalue())
print tdTags

Here is the HTML I would like it to find:

<td width="13%" class="TopHeader">

   <span class="red">I WANT THIS PART</span>

</td>

and it just gives me an empty array. I'm pretty sure what I am missing is probably fairly simple but like I said I am new to python so if anyone could help? Thanks!

p.s.: the output in findall is what pycurl is outputting and that part of the html is in there.

score 2 · Answer 1 · answered Mar 18 '12 at 03:58

2

You need to use re.DOTALL to make . match newline characters:

mlsTagRegex = re.compile(r'<td width="13%" class="TopHeader">(.*?)</td>', re.DOTALL)

But really you should avoid using regex for parsing html, use BeautifulSoup or lxml instead.

answered Mar 18 '12 at 03:58

Zach Kelling

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@zeekay: you're correct in that regular expressions are not good for matching arbitrary HTML, but this seems to be one of the simple cases where regexps will work sufficiently well. – Li-aung Yip Mar 18 '12 at 05:24
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I would disagree, this is an extremely fragile regex expression that will break if *any* type of change is made to the generated HTML. – Zach Kelling Mar 18 '12 at 05:43

score 1 · Accepted Answer · answered Mar 18 '12 at 03:57

1

Use re.DOTALL,so the '.' character will match any character,including the newline.

answered Mar 18 '12 at 03:57

Ceramic Pot

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OMG thank you so much. I knew it was going to be something simple like that! – classyhobo Mar 18 '12 at 03:59

python 2.7 re.MULTILINE troubles

2 Answers2