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From: Mark Lawrence <breamoreboy@yahoo.co.uk>
Subject: Re: New to using re.   Search for a number before a string.
Date: Sat, 02 Nov 2013 13:31:59 +0000
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On 01/11/2013 21:33, Captain Dunsel wrote:
> I have a text file that has lines with numbers occasionally appearing right before a person's name.  For example:
>
> COLLEGE:ENROLLMENT:COMPLETED EVALUATIONS:624309FUDD, ELMER
>
> where I want to search for the name "ELMER FUDD" and extract the number right in front of it "608309" when such a number appears but the length of the number is variable and using ?<= in a regular expression will only search for a fixed length.
>
> Any ideas appreciated!
>

As you've had answers here's some references for future use 
http://docs.python.org/3/howto/regex.html, 
https://wiki.python.org/moin/RegularExpression and 
http://www.regular-expressions.info/python.html

Also, the new regex package is an alternative to the stdlib re package. 
  It's available from https://pypi.python.org/pypi/regex

-- 
Python is the second best programming language in the world.
But the best has yet to be invented.  Christian Tismer

Mark Lawrence