title: how to search backwards in python?
body: <p>I am working with html files which have item 1, item 1a and item 2. is there a way to search backwards and find the item 1a which comes before an item 2?</p>
  
  <p>example:</p>
  
  <pre><code>text= """ this is an example item&amp;nbsp;1a thanks for helping item&amp;nbsp;2 blah blah item&amp;nbsp;1a""" 
  </code></pre>