Regular expression to identify groups

Question

content = "[row1|col1]:{value:{{calculate}}<<report_1>>[Row2|col2];format:float;} [hiddenr0120a|c0012]:{format:float;}"
regex = re.compile(r"(\[.*?\]).*?\{(.*?)\}")
entries = regex.findall(content)
#Output
[('[row1|col1]', 'value:{{calculate'), ('[Row2|col2]', 'format:float;')]
#Expected Output
[("[row1|col]", "{value:{{calculate}}<<report_1>>[Row2|col2];format: float;}"), ("[hiddenr0120a|c0012]", "{format:float;}")]

I have tried regex "([.?]).?{(.*?)}" which actually ends at the first instance of "}", so it fails for the first scenario.

Answer 1

You might use

(\[[^\[\]\r\n]*\]):({.*?})(?: (?=\[)|$)

In parts

• ( Capture group 1
  • \[[^\[\]\r\n]*\] Match from opening till closing square bracket
• ) Close group 1
• : Match literally (Or use .*? to match other chars as well)
• ( Capture group 2
  • {.*?} Match from { till } as least as possible
• ) Close group 2
• (?: Non capture group (?=[) Match a space and assert what is on the right is [
  • | Or
  • $ Assert the end of the string
• ) close non capture group

Regex demo | Python demo

Example code

import re
 
content = "[row1|col1]:{value:{{calculate}}<<report_1>>[Row2|col2];format:float;} [hiddenr0120a|c0012]:{format:float;}"
regex = re.compile(r"(\[[^\[\]\r\n]*\]):({.*?})(?: (?=\[)|$)")
entries = regex.findall(content)
print (entries)

Output

[('[row1|col1]', '{value:{{calculate}}<<report_1>>[Row2|col2];format:float;}'), ('[hiddenr0120a|c0012]', '{format:float;}')]