>>> def reps(text): return [text[:x] for x in range(1, 1 + len(text) // 2) if text.startswith(text[x:])] >>> matchstr = """\ 1001110011 1110111011 0010010010 1010101010 1111111111 0100101101 0100100 101 11 00 1 """ >>> print('\n'.join('%r has reps %r' % (line, reps(line)) for line in matchstr.split())) '1001110011' has reps ['10011'] '1110111011' has reps ['1110'] '0010010010' has reps ['001'] '1010101010' has reps ['10', '1010'] '1111111111' has reps ['1', '11', '111', '1111', '11111'] '0100101101' has reps [] '0100100' has reps ['010'] '101' has reps [] '11' has reps ['1'] '00' has reps ['0'] '1' has reps [] >>>