python match target word

Question

For each target word, I want to check if the next words that appear before the next target word are corresponding to what I've set in a document. If match, I want it to output to true and write out to txt file. If false, write out false.

I'm using regex, but iteration way is fine

import re
re.findall("([a-zA-Z]+) " + tofind, txt)

Target and next words:

target word: document
next words: set is complete

Sample Doc:

Document that I set is complete now. Document is great set. Is document is great complete document set is complete. Document is complete document is good but not complete.

Document appears 6 times in this excerpt, but I want it to return and output the below to txt file

first document -> true
second document -> false
third document -> false
fourth document -> true
fifth document -> false
sixth document -> false

Answer 1

Don't use regular expressions for this task, instead, string splicing will suffice. An example of a simple way:

sampleDoc = "Document that I set is complete now. Document is great set. Is document is great complete document set is complete. Document is complete document is good but not complete.".lower()
findWord = "document".lower()
wordToFind = "set is complete".lower()
splitList = sampleDoc.split(findWord)
splitList.pop(0)
for position,phrase in enumerate(splitList):
    if wordToFind in phrase:
        print("Document Number", str(position+1), "-> true")
    else:
        print("Document Number", str(position+1), "-> false")

We split the text on every word that we're trying to find, sending it to a list. We iterate over this list and if the important words are found, we output true, or if not, we output false.