Python Regex Get String Between Two Substrings

Question

First off, I know this may seem like a duplicate question, however, I could find no working solution to my problem.

I have string that looks like the following:

string = "api('randomkey123xyz987', 'key', 'text')"

I need to extract randomkey123xyz987 which will always be between api(' and ',

I was planning on using Regex for this, however, I seem to be having some trouble.

This is the only progress that I have made:

import re
string = "api('randomkey123xyz987', 'key', 'text')"
match = re.findall("\((.*?)\)", string)[0]
print match

The following code returns 'randomkey123xyz987', 'key', 'text'

I have tried to use [^'], but my guess is that I am not properly inserting it into the re.findall function.

Everything that I am trying is failing.

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Update: My current workaround is using [2:-4], but I would still like to avoid using match[2:-4].

Answer 1

If the string contains only one instance, use re.search() instead:

>>> import re
>>> s = "api('randomkey123xyz987', 'key', 'text')"
>>> match = re.search(r"api\('([^']*)'", s).group(1)
>>> print match
randomkey123xyz987