import re reg_all = re.compile(r"(^[A-Z]{1}-?[A-Z]?\s*$)|([A-Z]\W?[A-Z]?\s?\W\s?\d\d?\s?\s?:\s?\d\d?\s?\W)|((?!\d)(?!Rpk)[a-zA-Z]{3,}?\W)|(?!0)(^\d{1}\s*$|A\d{1}|\d/\d)") regex = r"(\S+\s{1,3}?\S*\s?\S*\S*\s?\S*\S*\s?\S*\S*\s?\S*\S*\s+)" file = open('/home/bscheibel/PycharmProjects/dxf_reader/drawings/5129275_Rev01-GV12.txt', 'r') text = file.read() file.close() extraction = [] matches = re.findall(regex, text, re.MULTILINE) for match in matches: #print(match) extraction.append(match.strip()) i = 0 new_matches = [] for match in extraction: #print(match) #print("blub") match = match.split('\n')[0] #if len(match)>1: # extraction.append(match[1]) #print(match[1]) #print([match]) if not re.search(reg_all, match): #print("blub") new_matches.append(match) i += 1 print(new_matches)