str.replace() v2|v3 does not recognize regular expressions.

To perform a substitution using a regular expression, use re.sub() v2|v3.

For example:

import re

line = re.sub(
           r"(?i)^.*interfaceOpDataFile.*$", 
           "interfaceOpDataFile %s" % fileIn, 
           line
       )

In a loop, it would be better to compile the regular expression first:

import re

regex = re.compile(r"^.*interfaceOpDataFile.*$", re.IGNORECASE)
for line in some_file:
    line = regex.sub("interfaceOpDataFile %s" % fileIn, line)
    # do something with the updated line
Answer from Andrew Clark on Stack Overflow
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Python documentation
docs.python.org โ€บ 3 โ€บ library โ€บ re.html
re โ€” Regular expression operations
May 25, 2026 - Source code: Lib/re/ This module provides regular expression matching operations similar to those found in Perl. Both patterns and strings to be searched can be Unicode strings ( str) as well as 8-...
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w3schools.com โ€บ python โ€บ python_regex.asp
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python.plainenglish.io โ€บ the-incredible-power-of-pythons-replace-regex-6cc217643f37
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docs.python.org โ€บ 3 โ€บ howto โ€บ regex.html
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realpython.com โ€บ replace-string-python
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