Python regex

Question

I am trying to use regular expressions to find the UK zip code in a string.

I have a regex running inside RegexBuddy, see below:

\b[A-Z]{1,2}[0-9][A-Z0-9]? [0-9][ABD-HJLNP-UW-Z]{2}\b

I have a bunch of addresses and you want to grab the zip code from them, for example below:

123 Some road names
City, city
County
PA23 6NH

How can I do this in Python? I know a module refor Python, but I'm trying my best to get it working.

Greetings

Eef

Answer 1

3 PA23 6NH, PA2 6NH PA2Q 6NH , ...

import re

s="123 Some Road Name\nTown, City\nCounty\nPA23 6NH\n123 Some Road Name\nTown, City"\
    "County\nPA2 6NH\n123 Some Road Name\nTown, City\nCounty\nPA2Q 6NH"

#custom                                                                                                                                               
print re.findall(r'\b[A-Z]{1,2}[0-9][A-Z0-9]? [0-9][ABD-HJLNP-UW-Z]{2}\b', s)

#regex from #http://en.wikipedia.orgwikiUK_postcodes#Validation                                                                                            
print re.findall(r'[A-Z]{1,2}[0-9R][0-9A-Z]? [0-9][A-Z]{2}', s)

['PA23 6NH', 'PA2 6NH', 'PA2Q 6NH']
['PA23 6NH', 'PA2 6NH', 'PA2Q 6NH']

.

Answer 2

Try

import re
re.findall("[A-Z]{1,2}[0-9][A-Z0-9]? [0-9][ABD-HJLNP-UW-Z]{2}", x)

\b.

Answer 3

#!/usr/bin/env python

import re

ADDRESS="""123 Some Road Name
Town, City
County
PA23 6NH"""

reobj = re.compile(r'(\b[A-Z]{1,2}[0-9][A-Z0-9]? [0-9][ABD-HJLNP-UW-Z]{2}\b)')
matchobj = reobj.search(ADDRESS)
if matchobj:
    print matchobj.group(1)

Output Example:

[user@host]$ python uk_postcode.py 
PA23 6NH