How to import Regex Library in Python

In this Python tutorial, we will discuss how to import the Regex Library in Python.

Regex is a powerful library, used to create regular expressions. These regular expressions are used for a variety of tasks such as pattern matching that are extremely useful, and great for automation.

How to import the Regex Library

Despite being a simple task, there any many problems that people run into when downloading and importing the regex library in Python.

First you need to actually install the library. You can doing using pip, or any other equivalent method.

pip install re

If this command didn’t execute properly, chances are that you not executing it in the right directory. However this only if your Python Installation is not added to PATH. If it was added, then it wouldn’t matter where it was executed. But now, this command must be executed within the same directory where you installed Python.

If your installation is in, C:/ProgramFiles/VisualStudio/Python37 for example, you will need to navigate to it, then run the command. So it will look something like this.

cd C:/ProgramFiles/VisualStudio/Python37
pip install re

If this didn’t solve your problem, check out our getting started with Python guide that explains how to download libraries.

Next we need to actually import the regex library into our Python code.

import regex

If the import statement executes without any problems, that means the library was successfully installed.

Using the Regex Library

You are now ready to begin using regex in your Python code!

Here’s a small code sample with a simple regular expression that you can try running to see the Regex library in action.

import regex

Sample = "Hello World"
Sample2 = "This website is called CodersLegacy"

print(re.findall("[a]", Sample))
print(re.findall("[a-z]", Sample))
print(re.findall("[a]", Sample2))
print(re.findall("[aoiue]", Sample2))

To learn more about Regex and how to create regular expressions, check out tutorial on Regex!

This marks the end of the “Import Regex in Python” Tutorial. Any suggestions or contributions for CodersLegacy are more than welcome. Questions regarding the tutorial content can be asked in the comments section below.