title: Python Regex Search And Replace
body: <p>I'm not new to Python but a complete newbie with regular expressions (on my to do list)</p>
  
  <p>I am trying to use python re to convert a string such as</p>
  
  <pre><code>[Hollywood Holt](http://www.hollywoodholt.com)
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>to</p>
  
  <pre><code>&lt;a href="http://www.hollywoodholt.com"&gt;Hollywood Holt&lt;/a&gt;
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>and a string like</p>
  
  <pre><code>*Hello world*
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>to</p>
  
  <pre><code>&lt;strong&gt;Hello world&lt;/strong&gt;
  </code></pre>