Question

I need to match ANY strings that start with:

'/Engine

and end with:

ir_vrn'

I have used this:

 vrn_page = re.compile('\'/Engine[a-zA-Z0-9._+-&/?:=]+ir_vrn\'')
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "<stdin>", line 1, in <module>
  File "/usr/lib/python2.6/re.py", line 190, in compile
    return _compile(pattern, flags)
  File "/usr/lib/python2.6/re.py", line 245, in _compile
    raise error, v # invalid expression
sre_constants.error: bad character range

but doesn’t work with this string:

'/Engine/page/im/pop_mostra.php?P_=9078&P_Utentevisitatore=1702795&loto=http://s1.example.com/utloto/9/9078/Media/7df4164ecb81a5992280a1ce81120d05-3a5fa4377a23242690a273a82ea5d607&type=ir_vrn'

Answer 1

Try:

/Engine.*?ir_vrn

Note the question mark. This makes sure that in

/Engined&^&^&^&ir_vrn@$@#$@#ir_vrn!@#!@#

it only catches

/Engined&^&^&^&ir_vrn

rather than

/Engined&^&^&^&ir_vrn@$@#$@#ir_vrn