Regular Expressions: Search in list

Solution 1:

Full Example (Python 3):
For Python 2.x look into Note below

import re

mylist = ["dog", "cat", "wildcat", "thundercat", "cow", "hooo"]
r = re.compile(".*cat")
newlist = list(filter(r.match, mylist)) # Read Note below
print(newlist)

Prints:

['cat', 'wildcat', 'thundercat']

Note:

For Python 2.x developers, filter returns a list already. In Python 3.x filter was changed to return an iterator so it has to be converted to list (in order to see it printed out nicely).

Python 3 code example
Python 2.x code example

Solution 2:

You can create an iterator in Python 3.x or a list in Python 2.x by using:

filter(r.match, list)

To convert the Python 3.x iterator to a list, simply cast it; list(filter(..)).