python - Extract block from CSS by Regular expression or any other method? -

i have extract text between /*custom-d start*/ , /*custom-d end*/, , there maybe spaces after /* , maybe spaces before */

i did in 2 steps:

1. regular expression extract start , end text.
2. string find method text between start , end text.

following code:

data ="""/* highlighting edits text on tib , not on pdf output.     .main-igp selector makes style apply tib.  */ .main-igp .edit1 {color: rgb(235, 127, 36)} .main-igp .edit2 {color: rgb(0, 0, 180);} /*custom-d start     */ .main-igp .edit3 {color: rgb(0, 180, 180);} .main-igp .edit6 {color: rgb(200, 200, 0);} /* custom-d end */ /* production note ===== */ p.production-note-rw {     display: none;} /* production note end ===== */"""   def extractcustomd():     """ extract custom-d block css data.         starting text /*custom-d start*/          , ending text /*custom-d end*/         there may space after /* , before */       """     import re     try:         start_text = re.findall("/\* *custom-d start *\*", data)[0]         end_text = re.findall("/\* *custom-d end *\*", data)[0]     except indexerror:         return ""     return data[data.find(start_text)+len(start_text):data.find(end_text)] 

we can extract target content regular expression? or there other way this?

edit: following working me

>>> re.findall("/\* *custom-d start *\*/([\s\s]*)/\* custom-d end \*/", data) ['\n.main-igp .edit3 {color: rgb(0, 180, 180);}\n.main-igp .edit6 {color: rgb(200, 200, 0);}\n'] 

currently, extract /*custom-d start */ , /* custom-d end */ substrings. however, need text between them.

you can use 1 regex expression extract substring:

/\* *custom-d start *\*/\s*(.*?)/\* *custom-d end *\*/ 

see regex demo. use re.s modifier.

see ideone demo:

import re p = re.compile(r'/\* *custom-d start *\*/\s*(.*?)/\* *custom-d end *\*/', re.dotall) test_str = "/* highlighting edits text on tib , not on pdf output. \n   .main-igp selector makes style apply tib.  */\n.main-igp .edit1 {color: rgb(235, 127, 36)}\n.main-igp .edit2 {color: rgb(0, 0, 180);}\n/*custom-d start     */\n.main-igp .edit3 {color: rgb(0, 180, 180);}\n.main-igp .edit6 {color: rgb(200, 200, 0);}\n/* custom-d end */\n/* production note ===== */\np.production-note-rw {\n    display: none;}\n/* production note end ===== */" m = p.search(test_str) if m:     print(m.group(1)) 

note can unroll lazy dot matching to

/\* *custom-d start *\*/\s*([^/]*(?:/(?!\* *custom-d end *\*/)[^/]*)*) 

this version faster 1 lazy dot matching.