How do I split a string and keep the separators using python re library?

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Here is my code:

import re
string = r"('Option A' | 'Option B') & ('Option C' | 'Option D')"
word_list = re.split(r"[\(.\)]", string)
-> ['', "'Option A' | 'Option B'", ' & ', "'Option C' | 'Option D'", '']

I want the following result:

-> ["('Option A' | 'Option B')", ' & ', "('Option C' | 'Option D')"]
python-re python
1 Answers

You can use re.findall to capture each parenthesis group:

import re
string = r"('Option A' | 'Option B') & ('Option C' | 'Option D')"
pattern = r"(\([^\)]+\))"
re.findall(pattern, string)
# ["('Option A' | 'Option B')", "('Option C' | 'Option D')"]

This also works with re.split

re.split(pattern, string)
# ['', "('Option A' | 'Option B')", ' & ', "('Option C' | 'Option D')", '']

If you want to remove empty elements from using re.split you can:

[s for s in re.split(pattern, string) if s]
# ["('Option A' | 'Option B')", ' & ', "('Option C' | 'Option D')"]

How the pattern works:

  • ( begin capture group
  • \( matches the character ( literally
  • [^\)]+ Match between one and unlimited characters that are not )
  • \) matches the character ) literally
  • ) end capture group
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