How can i find the string inside single quotes in python regex

Question

I want to match the string inside these lines

key: value
key: 'value'

I am using this regex

re.compile(r"(.*key: )(.*)")

but \\2 always catches single quotes as well.

I tried many things like

(.*key: )'?(.*)'? but didn't work

I am trying like this

line = regex.sub(r"\1'blah'\2", line)

Answer 1

I think you are trying to capture the value which was not present within the single quotes aswell as the one present within the single quotes.

key:\s*'?([^'\n]*)'?

Group index 1 contains the value of the field key .

DEMO

>>> import re
>>> s = """key: value
... key: 'value'"""
>>> m = re.findall(r"key:\s*'?([^'\n]*)'?", s, re.M)
>>> m
['value', 'value']

Answer 2

import re

s1 = "key: value"
s2 = "key: 'value'"

line = re.search(r'.*key: \'?(.*?)(\'?)$', s1)
print line.group(1) # prints value

line = re.search(r'.*key: \'?(.*?)(\'?)$', s2)
print line.group(1) # prints value