How to add a variable into my re.compile expression

Question

So I am trying to look through a file for a keyword that is represented by the variable what2look4. Whenever I run this program however it keeps returning blank data. The code is as follows:

regex2=re.compile(".*(what2look4).*")

I believe the problem is that the file is being searched for what2look4 as a string in itself instead of what that variable represents. Please correct me if I'm wrong, thanks for the help.

Answer 1

You can do it like so...

>>> regex2 = re.compile('.*(%s).*'%what2look4)

Or you can use format:

>>> regex2 = re.compile('.*({}).*'.format(what2look4))

Answer 2

Use a String format:

search = "whattolookfor"
regex2=re.compile(".*({}).*".format(search))

The {} inside the string will be replaced with whattolookfor