running a RE.match and having trouble making each match string work for filenames with different formats

When using regular expressions with re.match to match strings in filenames with different formats, you can adjust the regular expression pattern to accommodate the variations. Here are a few strategies you can employ:

1. Use character classes: Utilize character classes ([ ]) to specify a set of characters that can occur at a particular position in the filename. For example, if you want to match filenames with either a .txt or a .csv extension, you can use the pattern r"filename\.(txt|csv)". This will match filenames like filename.txt and filename.csv.

2. Quantifiers for optional parts: Employ quantifiers (?, *, +) to make certain parts of the pattern optional or repeatable. For instance, if you want to match filenames that start with file but may or may not have a numeric suffix, you can use r"file\d*" to match filenames like file, file1, file123, etc.

3. Escape special characters: Ensure that special characters in filenames are properly escaped in the regular expression pattern. For example, if you want to match a filename containing parentheses, you would need to escape them with a backslash: r"file\(.*\)".

4. Use the dot (.) for any character: If you need to match any character in a particular position, you can use the dot (.) metacharacter. For instance, if you want to match filenames with any extension, you can use r"filename\..*". This will match filenames like filename.txt, filename.csv, filename.exe, etc.

By adapting these strategies and customizing the regular expression patterns based on the variations in your filenames, you should be able to achieve successful matches for different formats.