# coding=utf8
# the above tag defines encoding for this document and is for Python 2.x compatibility
import re
regex = r"^([a-zA-Z]+?)([-\s'][a-zA-Z]+)*?$"
test_str = ("\n"
"#should only start with alphabets\n"
"John\n"
"1John\n"
"-John\n"
" John\n"
"\\John\n"
"#Can contain spaces,- and ' but should not repeat consecutively, also there should be alphabets before and after allowed special chars\n"
"John Doe\n"
"John-Doe\n"
"John's Doe\n"
"John--Doe\n"
"John Doe\n"
"John' s\n"
"John-Doe-\n\n"
"#Other special chars not allowed\n"
"John#Doe\n"
"J0hn\n"
"JON3\n")
matches = re.finditer(regex, test_str, re.MULTILINE)
for matchNum, match in enumerate(matches, start=1):
print ("Match {matchNum} was found at {start}-{end}: {match}".format(matchNum = matchNum, start = match.start(), end = match.end(), match = match.group()))
for groupNum in range(0, len(match.groups())):
groupNum = groupNum + 1
print ("Group {groupNum} found at {start}-{end}: {group}".format(groupNum = groupNum, start = match.start(groupNum), end = match.end(groupNum), group = match.group(groupNum)))
# Note: for Python 2.7 compatibility, use ur"" to prefix the regex and u"" to prefix the test string and substitution.
Please keep in mind that these code samples are automatically generated and are not guaranteed to work. If you find any syntax errors, feel free to submit a bug report. For a full regex reference for Python, please visit: https://docs.python.org/3/library/re.html