Python RegEx: How to conditionally match multiple optional ending characters in a URL

Question

I have to match URLs in my Django re_path function.

The structures to be matched are as follows:

1. Any URL must start with either /profile or /user/profile
2. Any URL must end with either profile , or profile/ or profile/blabla

Here below the examples for allowed URLs:

• /profile
• /profile/
• /profile/asd
• /profile/asd/
• /user/profile
• /user/profile/
• /user/profile/asd
• /user/profile/asd/

I tried the following, but it fails:

re_path(r'^profile/?.*$', views.my_view)

Any help is appreciated, thanks!

Answer 1

You can use

^/(?:user/)?profile(?:/(?:[^/]+/?)?)?$

See regex demo . Details :

• ^ - start of string
• / - a / char
• (?:user/)? - an optional user/ string
• profile - a fixed string
• (?:/(?:[^/]+/?)?)? - an optional sequence of
  • / - a / char
  • (?:[^/]+/?)? - an optional sequence of any one or more chars other than / and then an optional / char
• $ - end of string.