Python - Parsing JSON formatted text file with regex

Question

I have a text file formatted like a JSON file however everything is on a single line (could be a MongoDB File). Could someone please point me in the direction of how I could

Answer 1

You can use python's walk method and check each entry with re.match.

In case that the string you got is not convertable to a python dict, you can use just regex:

print re.match(r'.*fileAssetId\":\"([^\"]+)\".*', your_pattern).group(1)

Solution for your example:

import re

example_string = '{"d":{"__type":"WikiFileNodeContent:http:\/\/samplesite.com.u\/ns\/business\/wiki","author":null,"description":null,"fileAssetId":"034b9317-60d9-45c2-b6d6-0f24b59e1991","filename":"Reports.pdf"},"createdBy":1531,"createdByUsername":"John Cash","icon":"\/Assets10.37.5.0\/pix\/16x16\/page_white_acrobat.png","id":3041,"inheritedPermissions":false,"name":"map","permissions":[23,87,35,49,65],"type":3,"viewLevel":2},{"__type":"WikiNode:http:\/\/samplesite.com.au\/ns\/business\/wiki","children":[],"content"'

regex_pattern = r'.*fileAssetId\":\"([^\"]+)\".*'
match = re.match(regex_pattern, example_string)
fileAssetId = match.group(1)
print('fileAssetId: {}'.format(fileAssetId))

executing this yields:

34b9317‌​-60d9-45c2-b6d6-0f24‌​b59e1991