Python Regex - Select Text between a pattern-CodePudding

Have below sample text descriptions

Input Example 1: (Have Comments in the text)

1. ADEQUATE HANDWASHING SINKS PROPERLY SUPPLIED AND ACCESSIBLE - Comments: AN HANDWASHING SINK INSTALLED AT EAST BAR AREA.NEED TO RELOCATE HANDWASHING SINK AT MIDDLE OF AREA BEHIND THE BAR COUNTER FOR ACCESSIBILITY TO HAND WASHING. PRIORITY FOUNDATION VIOLATION :7-38-030(C), NO CITATION ISSUED.

Example 2: (No Comments in the text)

47. FOOD & NON-FOOD CONTACT SURFACES CLEANABLE, PROPERLY DESIGNED, CONSTRUCTED & USED

The Output should be like below. Need to extract all texts after starting index numbers,followed by '.' and before '- Comments:'. If no '- Comments:' found then extract all texts after the starting index numbers.

ADEQUATE HANDWASHING SINKS PROPERLY SUPPLIED AND ACCESSIBLE

FOOD & NON-FOOD CONTACT SURFACES CLEANABLE, PROPERLY DESIGNED, CONSTRUCTED & USED

Tried using the regular expression '(?:^[\d . ]*)(.*?)(?:\-\s\w*: ?)' which worked for example 1 but not for example 2.

Is it possible to match both examples in one regular expression?

CodePudding user response：

Here is one regex find all approach. We can match on the following regex:

\d \. (.*?)(?: - |\r?\n|$)

This will match from the start of a numbered section until reaching either -, CR?LF, or the end of the input.

inp = """1. ADEQUATE HANDWASHING SINKS PROPERLY SUPPLIED AND ACCESSIBLE - Comments: AN HANDWASHING SINK INSTALLED AT EAST BAR AREA.NEED TO RELOCATE HANDWASHING SINK AT MIDDLE OF AREA BEHIND THE BAR COUNTER FOR ACCESSIBILITY TO HAND WASHING. PRIORITY FOUNDATION VIOLATION :7-38-030(C), NO CITATION ISSUED.

Example 2: (No Comments in the text)

47. FOOD & NON-FOOD CONTACT SURFACES CLEANABLE, PROPERLY DESIGNED, CONSTRUCTED & USED"""

matches = re.findall(r'\d \. (.*?)(?: - |\r?\n|$)', inp)
print(matches)

This prints:

['ADEQUATE HANDWASHING SINKS PROPERLY SUPPLIED AND ACCESSIBLE',
 'FOOD & NON-FOOD CONTACT SURFACES CLEANABLE, PROPERLY DESIGNED, CONSTRUCTED & USED']