How to match patterns like XX YY XX YY? (regex)

[Peng Yu]

Hi,

Suppose that I have strings like the following

test(a b)a b
test(xy uv)xy uv
....

I want to change them to

test(a)a test(b)b
test(xy)xy test(uv)uv
....


The problem is that I don't know how to capture pattern that repeat
itself (like 'a' and 'xy' in the example). I could use 'test\((\w+)
(\w+)\)(\w) (\w)', but it will capture something like 'test(a b)x y',
which I don't want to.

I'm wondering if there is way to capture recurring patterns.

 

[Alex Willmer]

The problem is that I don't know how to capture pattern that repeat
itself (like 'a' and 'xy' in the example). I could use 'test\((\w+)
(\w+)\)(\w) (\w)', but it will capture something like 'test(a b)x y',
which I don't want to.

I'm wondering if there is way to capture recurring patterns.

Back references can deal with repetition.

Python 2.6.5 (r265:79063, Apr 16 2010, 13:09:56)
[GCC 4.4.3] on linux2
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