How to search for the first match of a regular expression using re.search()?

The re.search() function allows you to search for the first match of a given regular expression in a target string.

import re
m = re.search(pattern, string, flags=0)

Where:
   pattern is the regular expression
   string is the target string
   m is None or a Match object 

If a match is found, m is the Match object representing the match result, which supports the following properties and functions:

import re
m = re.search(pattern, string, flags=0)
m.re       # the regular expression
m.string   # the target string 

m.group()  # the matched substring
m.group(1) # the first matched group
m.group(2) # the second matched group
...
m.groups() # all matched groups as tuple
m.start()  # the starting position of the match
m.start(1) # the starting position of the first matched group
m.start(2) # the starting position of the second matched group
...
m.end()  # the ending position of the match
m.end(1) # the ending position of the first matched group
m.end(2) # the ending position of the second matched group
...

Here is a Python example that shows you how to use the re.search() function and the match result object:

>>> import re
>>> s = "Hello perl.org, php.net, and python.org!"
>>> p = "(\\w+)\\.(\\w+)"
>>> print(p)
(\w+)\.(\w+)
>>> m = re.search(p,s)
>>> print(m)
<_sre.SRE_Match object; span=(6, 14), match='perl.org'>
>>> m.group()
'perl.org'
>>> m.group(1)
'perl'
>>> m.group(2)
'org'
>>> m.groups()
('perl', 'org')
>>> m.start()
6
>>> m.end()
14

⇒ re.findall() - Find All Matches

⇐ What Is Python Module 're'

⇑ 're' Module - Regular Expression Operations

⇑⇑ Python Tutorials