The particular hangup I faced when using regex was with this URL: http://vi.ebaydesc.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItemDesc&item=290277158797&t=1227377775

The particular hangup I faced when using regex was with this URL: http://vi.ebaydesc.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItemDesc&item=290277158797&t=1227377775000&ds=2&seller=la-wheel-and-tire&js=e583:1&hr=http://shop.ebay.com/?_from=R40&caz.html http://vi.ebaydesc.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItemD... >>> x = re.compile('(?:(item|t|hr)=(\d+))') >>> x.findall(url) [('item', '290277158797'), ('t', '1227377775000')] I can't for the life of me figure out how to get the hr value. I started messing around with regex again, but no luck so far. I can do the same with Python's string methods: >>> hr_start = url.find('hr=') >>> hr_end = url.find('&',url.find('hr='),len(url)) >>> url[hr_start:hr_end] 'hr=http://shop.ebay.com/?_from=R40' http://shop.ebay.com/?_from=R40' It's just messy as hell, it'd be nice to do everything in one swoop.