regex works on pythex but not python2.7, finding unicode representations by regex
Question: I am having a strange regex issue where my regex works on pythex, but not in
python itself. I am using 2.7 right now. I want to remove all unicode
instances like `\x92`, of which there are many (like `'Thomas Bradley
\x93Brad\x94 Garza',`:

    
    
    import re, requests
    
    def purify(string):
        strange_issue = r"""\\t<td><font size=2>G<td><a href="http://facebook.com/KilledByPolice/posts/625590984135709" target=new><font size=2><center>facebook.com/KilledByPolice/posts/625590984135709\t</a><td><a href="http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/local/lake/os-leesburg-officer-involved-shooting-20130507"""
        unicode_chars_rgx = r"[\\][x]\d+"
        unicode_matches = re.findall(unicode_chars_rgx, string)
        bad_list = [strange_issue]
        bad_list.extend(unicode_matches)
        for item in bad_list:
            string = string.replace(item, "")
        return string
    
    name_rgx = r"(?:[<][TDtd][>])|(?:target[=]new[>])(?P<the_deceased>[A-Z].*?)[,]"
    
    urls = {2013: "http://www.killedbypolice.net/kbp2013.html",
            2014: "http://www.killedbypolice.net/kbp2014.html",
            2015: "http://www.killedbypolice.net/" }
    
    names_of_the_dead = []
    
    for url in urls.values():
        response = requests.get(url)
        content = response.content
        people_killed_by_police_that_year_alone = re.findall(name_rgx, content)
        for dead_person in people_killed_by_police_that_year_alone:
            names_of_the_dead.append(purify(dead_person))
    
    dead_americans_as_string = ", ".join(names_of_the_dead)
    print("RIP, {} since 2013:\n".format(len(names_of_the_dead))) # 3085! :)
    print(dead_americans_as_string)
    
    
    
    In [95]: unicode_chars_rgx = r"[\\][x]\d+"
    
    In [96]: testcase = "Myron De\x92Shawn May"
    
    In [97]: x = purify(testcase)
    
    In [98]: x
    Out[98]: 'Myron De\x92Shawn May'
    
    In [103]: match = re.match(unicode_chars_rgx, testcase)
    
    In [104]: match
    

How can I get these `\x00` characters out? Thank you


Answer: Certainly not by trying to find things that look like "`\\x00`".

If you want to destroy the data:

    
    
    >>> re.sub('[\x7f-\xff]', '', "Myron De\x92Shawn May")
    'Myron DeShawn May'
    

More work, but tries to preserve the text as well as possible:

    
    
    >>> import unidecode
    >>> unidecode.unidecode("Myron De\x92Shawn May".decode('cp1251'))
    "Myron De'Shawn May"
    

