How Can I Find All Matches of a Regular Expression in Python?

Finding Multiple Matches with Regular Expressions in Python

When searching for regular expression matches in a text, the re.search() function will only identify the first occurrence. To find all instances of a pattern, explore alternative options that cater to multiple matches.

Using re.findall

The re.findall function takes two arguments: the regular expression pattern and the target string. It returns a list of all non-overlapping matches found in the string.

import re

matches = re.findall(r'all (.*?) are', 'all cats are smarter than dogs, all dogs are dumber than cats')
print(matches)  # ['cats', 'dogs']

Using re.finditer

Another option is re.finditer, which returns an iterator over MatchObject objects.

for match in re.finditer(r'all (.*?) are', 'all cats are smarter than dogs, all dogs are dumber than cats'):
    print(match.group())  # 'all cats are', 'all dogs are'

These methods allow you to process all matches within a given string, providing flexibility when working with regular expressions.

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