I have following string. DATE: 12242010Key Type: Nod32 Anti-Vir (30d trial) Key: a5B2s-sH12B-hgtY3-io87N-srg98-KLMNO I need to create dictionary so it would be like { "DATE": "12242010", "Key Type": "Nod32 Anti-Vir (30d trial)", "Key": "a5B2s-sH12B-hgtY3-io87N-srg98-KLMNO" } The problem is that string is unformatted DATE: 12242010Key Type: Nod32 Anti-Vir (30d trial) there is no space after Date before Key Type also it would be nice to have some validation for Key, eg if there are 5 chars in each box of key and number of boxes I am a beginner in python and moreover in regular expressions. Thanks a lot.