Question

I have the following string data:

data = "*****''[[dogs and cats]]''/n"

I would like to use regular expressions in python to extract the string. All the data is encapsuled in the double quotes ” “. What are the wildcards that I use so I can get the following:

print data.groups(1)
print data.groups(2)
print data.groups(3)

'dogs'
'and'
'cats'

Edit: So far I have something a long the lines of this

  test = re.search("\\S*****''[[(.+) (.+) (.+)\\S]]''", "*****''[[dogs and cats]]''\n") 
  print test.group(1) 

Answer 1

Some people, when confronted with a problem, think, “I know, I’ll use regular expressions.” Now they have two problems.” Jamie Zawinski

data = "*****''[[dogs and cats]]''/n"
start = data.find('[')+2
end = data.find(']')
answer = data[start:end].split()

print answer[0]
print answer[1]
print answer[2]