Using Regular Expressions with mixed data types in Python: Safely handling non-string inputs

[Rajeev Bagra]

Source: Created with the help of ChatGPT

import re

personlist = ["axx ffbd", 56556, "acccb"]
pattern = "ax"

for x in personlist:
if re.match(pattern, x):
print(x)

 

Output:

return _compile(pattern, flags).match(string)
TypeError: expected string or bytes-like object

ChatGPT:

In your code, you’re trying to match a regular expression pattern "ax" against each item in personlist. However, personlist contains both strings and non-string elements (like the integer 56556), and the re.match() function expects a string as its second argument. If it encounters an integer, it will raise a TypeError.

To avoid this, you should first check if the item is a string before attempting to use re.match() on it. Here’s how you can modify your code:

import re

personlist = ["axx ffbd", 56556, "acccb"]
pattern = "ax"

for x in personlist:
if isinstance(x, str): # Check if the element is a string
if re.match(pattern, x):
print(x)

Explanation:

• isinstance(x, str): This checks if x is a string. Only if it is a string will the re.match() function be called.
• The pattern "ax" will match strings starting with "ax", so "axx ffbd" will be printed because it matches the pattern.

Output:

axx ffbd

The integer 56556 is safely skipped, and no errors occur.

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