Newbie: Check first two non-whitespace characters

[Karim]

On 01/01/2016 00:25, Mark Lawrence wrote:
> On 31/12/2015 18:54, Karim wrote:
>>
>>
>> On 31/12/2015 19:18, otaksoftspamtrap at gmail.com wrote:
>>> I need to check a string over which I have no control for the first 2
>>> non-white space characters (which should be '[{').
>>>
>>> The string would ideally be: '[{...' but could also be something like
>>> '  [  {  ....'.
>>>
>>> Best to use re and how? Something else?
>>
>> Use pyparsing it is straight forward:
>>
>>  >>> from pyparsing import Suppress, restOfLine
>>
>>  >>> mystring = Suppress('[') + Suppress('{') + restOfLine
>>
>>  >>> result = mystring.parse(' [ { .... I am learning pyparsing' )
>>
>>  >>> print result.asList()
>>
>> ['.... I am learning pyparsing']
>>
>> You'll get your string inside the list.
>>
>> Hope this help see pyparsing doc for in depth study.
>>
>> Karim
>
> Congratulations for writing up one of the most overengineered pile of 
> cobblers I've ever seen.
>

You welcome !

The intent was to make a simple introduction to pyparsing which is a 
powerful tool for more complex parser build.

Karim