I'm aware that there are modules that fully simplify this function, but saying that I am running from a base install of python (standard modules only), how would I extract the following: I have a list. This list is the contents, line by line, of a webpage. Here is a mock up list (unformatted) for informative purposes: <script> link = "/scripts/playlists/1/" + a.id + "/0-5417069212.asx"; <script> "<a href="/apps/audio/?feedId=11065"><span class="px13">Eastern Metro Area Fire</span>" From the above string, I need the following extracted. The feedId (11065), which is incidentally a.id in the code above., "/scripts/playlists/1/" and "/0-5417069212.asx". Remembering that each of these lines is just contents from objects in a list, how would I go about extracting that data? Here is the full list: contents = urllib2.urlopen("http://www.radioreference.com/apps/audio/?ctid=5586") Pseudo: from urllib2 import urlopen as getpage page_contents = getpage("http://www.radioreference.com/apps/audio/?ctid=5586") feedID = % in (page_contents.search() for "/apps/audio/?feedId=%") titleID = % in (page_contents.search() for "<span class="px13">%</span>") playlistID = % in (page_contents.search() for "link = "%" + a.id + "*.asx";") asxID = * in (page_contents.search() for "link = "*" + a.id + "%.asx";") streamURL = "http://www.radioreference.com/" + playlistID + feedID + asxID + ".asx" I plan to format it as such that streamURL should = : http://www.radioreference.com/scripts/playlists/1/11065/0-5417067072.asx