匹配python正则表达式中的复杂表达式

Question

I have to create a unique textual marker in my document using Python 2.7, with the following function:

def build_textual_marker(number, id):
    return "[xxxcixxx[[_'" + str(number) + "'] [_'" + id + "']]xxxcixxx]"

the output looks like this : [xxxcixxx[[_'1'] [_'24']]xxxcixxx]

And then I have to catch any occurrence of this expression in my document. I ended up to the following regular expression but it seems not working fine:

marker_regex = "\[xxxcixxx\[(\[_*?\])\s(\[_*?\])\]xxxcixxx\]"

I was wondering how should I write the correct regex in this case?

Answer 1

Try using

\[xxxcixxx\[\[_'.*?'\] \[_'.*?'\]\]xxxcixxx\]

Demo: http://regexr.com/3d887

Answer 2

Rather than the lazy star, you might as well get along with a digit class directly (the function build_textual_marker takes a number parameter, doesn't it?):

\[xxxcixxx\[(\[_'\d+'\])\s(\[_'\d+'\])\]xxxcixxx\]

See a demo on regex101.com .