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Python Regex: re.search() VS re.findall()

Last Updated : 12 Jul, 2025

Python’s re module provides powerful tools to search, match and manipulate text using regular expressions. Two commonly used functions are re.search(), which finds the first occurrence of a pattern in a string and re.findall(), which retrieves all matches of a pattern throughout the string. Understanding how each works will help you effectively handle text processing tasks.

re.search() function scans through a string, looking for the first location where the regular expression pattern produces a match. It returns a match object if a match is found, otherwise returns None.

Example:

import re
s = "My favorite fruits are apple, banana, and mango."
res = re.search(r'\b\w*a\b', s)

if res:
    print(res.group())
else:
    print("Not found.")

Explanation:

• re.search(r'\b\w*a\b', s) looks for the first word in the string that ends with the letter 'a'.
• pattern \b\w*a\b means the word must start and end at a word boundary (\b), contain any number of word characters (\w*) and end specifically with 'a'.

re.findall() function returns all non-overlapping matches of a pattern in a string as a list of strings. If the pattern has capturing groups, it returns a list of tuples.

import re
s = "My favorite fruits are apple, banana, and mango."

res = re.findall(r'\b\w*a\b', s)
print(res)

Explanation:

• re.findall(r'\b\w*a\b', s) finds all words in the string that end with the letter 'a'.
• pattern \b\w*a\b means the word must start and end at a word boundary (\b), contain any number of word characters (\w*) and end specifically with 'a'.

Capturing groups in regular expressions are used to extract specific parts of the matched text. You create a group by placing part of the pattern inside parentheses ().

Example 1: In this example, we want to extract the price (just the number) after the word Price by using re.search().

import re

s = "Price: $30, Discount: $5"
res = re.search(r'Price: \$(\d+)', s)
if res:
    print(res.group(1))

Explanation:

• re.search(r'Price: \$(\d+)', s) looks for the first occurrence of the word "Price:" followed by a dollar sign $ and then one or more digits.
• pattern Price: \$(\d+) uses parentheses () to create a capturing group that extracts just the number after "Price: $".

Example 2: Now, suppose you want to extract all numbers that come after a dollar sign ($) in the sentence. You can use re.findall() for this.

import re
s = "Price: $30, Discount: $5"

res = re.findall(r'\$(\d+)', s)
print(res)

Explanation:

• re.findall(r'\$(\d+)', s) searches the entire string for all numbers that come after a dollar sign $.
• pattern \$(\d+) uses a capturing group (\d+) to extract one or more digits following each $ symbol.

Both functions are used to find patterns in text, but they serve different purposes depending on whether you need a single match or all matches. The table below highlights the key differences to help you choose the right function for your task.

Feature

re.search()

re.findall()

Return Type

Returns a Match object or None

Returns a list of matching strings or tuples

Match Count

Returns only the first match

Returns all non-overlapping matches

Use Case

Best for checking if a pattern exists

Best for extracting multiple matches

Access Groups

Allows access to individual groups using .group()

Capturing groups are returned as tuples

Performance

Stops at first match (faster in some cases)

Scans the entire string

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