python regex re.sub with strings

Question

I am trying to use regex expressions to build a word filter. Currently, i have something in this form:

value = re.sub(r'(([q])[ ]*[w][ ]*[e][ ]*[r])', r'\2***', value, flags=re.IGNORECASE)  

I would like to be able to do something like

value = regex_gen("qwer", value)  

where my regex_gen function looks like:

def regex_gen(filter_word, string):
first = 0
regex = "r'("
regex_result = "r'"
for c in filter_word:
    if first == 0:
        regex += "([" + c + "])"
        regex_result += "\2"
        first += 1
    else:
        regex += "[ ]*[" + c + "]"
        regex_result += "*"
regex += ")'"
regex_result += "'"
final = re.sub(regex, regex_result, string, flags=re.IGNORECASE)
return final

but my regex_gen function isn't working so far, i am only accounting for white spaces in between the characters and character case. if other approaches to a word filter are easier to implement than that would work too

Answer 1

Currently you have r'...' with your variable regex and regex_results . Change the code so that it doesn't add those characters on it. For example replace:

regex = "r'(" into regex = "("
regex_result = "r'" into regex_result = ""
regex += ")'" into regex += ")"
remove regex_result += "'"

And replace \\2 with \\\\2 . For example:

regex_result += "\\2"

Now run your code again.