Question

Here is my code:

import re

p = re.compile('(?P<name>[^|]*)|(?P<desc>[^|]*)')
m = p.match('jack|a good boy')
name = m.group('name')
desc = m.group('desc')
print name  # jack
print desc  # None

How can I get the desc after the ‘|’?

Answer 1

To match a | you must escape it. Otherwise your pattern would match either first or last group. But, not the both.

import re

p = re.compile('(?P<name>[^|]*)\|(?P<desc>[^|]*)')
m = p.match('jack|a good boy')
name = m.group('name')
desc = m.group('desc')
print name  # jack
print desc  # a good boy

Note I’ve changed your piece of code a bit. Just escaped | to \|.