this will change directories as directed, open a file, match by a regex and then print out the results ot a file as directed

python extract regex matches in file

#! #!/usr/bin/env python3

import io, os, re
os.chdir('/Users/tom/Desktop/tmp')
e=open('questiondb.xml','rt')
search_string=e.read()
e.close()
outfile=open("out.txt",'w')
matches=re.findall(r"(<item d2l_2p0:id=.*\n(.+?\n(?!</item))+?.*?questiontype(.*?\n)+?.*Multiple Choice\n(.*\n)+?.*/item>.*?\n)",search_string)

for i in matches:
   outfile.write(i[0])

outfile.close()