Groups Method in Regular Expressions in Python

In Python, we can use regular expressions when looking for patterns in text. So we have a useful method called groups() in Python. This method helps us to find and manage many parts of a pattern. So in this article will explain how the groups() method works.

The groups() Method

The match.group() function in Python's re module is used to get the captured groups after a successful regular expression match. When a regular expression uses parentheses, it creates capturing groups with the matched substrings. The match.group() method returns the captured substrings. The following is the syntax of the groups() method -

match.groups()

Example 1

Here is a simple example of how we can use the groups() method in Python. The pattern we will look for is a date written in the format "DD/MM/YYYY," where "DD" is the day, "MM" is the month, and "YYYY" is the year. Let's see how this works -

import re

pattern = r'(\d{2})/(\d{2})/(\d{4})'
text = 'The date is 25/03/2025'
match = re.search(pattern, text)
if match:
    print("Matched groups:", match.groups())
else:
    print("No match found")

When you run the above code, it will output the following -

Matched groups: ('25', '03', '2025')

Example 2

Here is another example of how we can use the groups() method in Python. Here we will find a person's name and age from a text string. It will check if this pattern matches the text. If a match is found, the code will print the captured groups. And it will show us the name and age separately.

import re

text = "Name: Amit, Age: 30"
match = re.search(r'Name: (\w+), Age: (\d+)', text)

if match:
   print(match.groups())

When you execute the above program, it will output the following -

('Amit', '30')

Example 3

In this example, we will learn how to use Python's regular expressions to extract an email address from a string. Our goal is to determine and save the various components of an email address included in the text.

We are using the text "Contact us at [email protected]." This sentence shows that we can reach someone by email. The email address we want to extract is "[email protected]."

import re

email = "Contact us at [email protected]"
match = re.search(r'(\w+)@(\w+)\.(\w+)', email)

if match:
    print(match.groups()) 

When you execute the above program, it will output the following -

('help', 'example', 'com')