Python web scraping, symbols meaning

Question

In below code, what does each and every element of the symbol string re.sub('<[^>]*>|[\n]|\[[0-9]*\]', '', htmlread) mean?

import urllib2
import re

htmltext = urllib2.urlopen("https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linkin_Park")
htmlread = htmltext.read()
htmlread = re.sub('<[^>]*>|[\n]|\[[0-9]*\]', '', htmlread)
regex = '(?<=Linkin Park was founded)(.*)(?=the following year.)'
pattern = re.compile(regex)
htmlread = re.findall(pattern, htmlread)
print "Linkin Park was founded" + htmlread[0] + "the following year."

Answer 1

The line htmlread = re.sub('<[^>]*>|[\n]|\[[0-9]*\]', '', htmlread) removes either

• an expression between <> OR
• a newline
• a number between brackets or empty brackets

from htmlread

interesting wiki post here: Reference - What does this regex mean?

Answer 2

Replace every character with '', that means delete it from htmlread variable

Please read more about RegEx