How to match up to double closing curly braces not followed with a curly brace

Question

So, I have a RegEX equation and line of code that removes all curly braces from a string, but I want it to only remove the brackets when they are balanced

here is my line:

matches = re.findall(r'{{(.*?)}}', url)

string example: {{location.city}} output: location.city

But let's say the input string is:

{{location.city}}}}

I want the output to be location.city}}

I've been messing around with RegEx for a while and still haven't figured out how to do it.

Answer 1

You may require no } after the closing }} :

re.findall(r'{{(.*?)}}(?!})', url)

See the regex demo

The (?!}) is a negative lookahead that fails the match if there is a } immediately on the right.

If the same is required with {{ , if there can be no { before the {{ at the start, add a lookbehind:

re.findall(r'(?<!{){{(.*?)}}(?!})', url)

See this regex demo .