import re phonePattern = re.compile(r'^(\d{3})\D+(\d{3})\D+(\d{4})\D+(\d+)$') phonePattern.search('000 888 1234 1234').groups() print phonePattern.search('000-888-1234-1234').groups() print phonePattern.search('00088812341234') print phonePattern.search('000-888-1234')