How to extract numbers from a string in Python?

Question

I would extract all the numbers contained in a string. Which is the better suited for the purpose, regular expressions or the isdigit() method?

Example:

Answer 1

I'd use a regexp :

>>> import re
>>> re.findall(r'\d+', 'hello 42 I\'m a 32 string 30')
['42', '32', '30']

This would also match 42 from bla42bla. If you only want numbers delimited by word boundaries (space, period, comma), you can use \b :

>>> re.findall(r'\b\d+\b', 'he33llo 42 I\'m a 32 string 30')
['42', '32', '30']

To end up with a list of numbers instead of a list of strings:

>>> [int(s) for s in re.findall(r'\b\d+\b', 'he33llo 42 I\'m a 32 string 30')]
[42, 32, 30]