A regular expression (or RE) specifies a set of strings that matches
it; the functions in this module let you check if a particular string
matches a given regular expression (or if a given regular expression
matches a particular string, which comes down to the same thing).
Regular expressions can be concatenated to form new regular
expressions; if A and B are both regular expressions,
then AB is also an regular expression. If a string p
matches A and another string q matches B, the string pq
will match AB. Thus, complex expressions can easily be constructed
from simpler primitive expressions like the ones described here. For
details of the theory and implementation of regular expressions,
consult the Friedl book referenced below, or almost any textbook about
compiler construction.
A brief explanation of the format of regular expressions follows.
Regular expressions can contain both special and ordinary characters.
Most ordinary characters, like "A", "a", or "0",
are the simplest regular expressions; they simply match themselves.
You can concatenate ordinary characters, so last matches the
string 'last'. (In the rest of this section, we'll write RE's in
this special style, usually without quotes, and strings to be
matched 'in single quotes'.)
Some characters, like "|" or "(", are special. Special
characters either stand for classes of ordinary characters, or affect
how the regular expressions around them are interpreted.
The special characters are:
- "."
- (Dot.) In the default mode, this matches any
character except a newline. If the DOTALL flag has been
specified, this matches any character including a newline.
- "^"
- (Caret.) Matches the start of the string, and in
MULTILINE mode also matches immediately after each newline.
- "$"
- Matches the end of the string, and in
MULTILINE mode also matches before a newline.
foo matches both 'foo' and 'foobar', while the regular
expression foo$ matches only 'foo'.
- "*"
- Causes the resulting RE to
match 0 or more repetitions of the preceding RE, as many repetitions
as are possible. ab* will
match 'a', 'ab', or 'a' followed by any number of 'b's.
- "+"
- Causes the
resulting RE to match 1 or more repetitions of the preceding RE.
ab+ will match 'a' followed by any non-zero number of 'b's; it
will not match just 'a'.
- "?"
- Causes the resulting RE to
match 0 or 1 repetitions of the preceding RE. ab? will
match either 'a' or 'ab'.
- *?, +?, ??
- The "*", "+", and
"?" qualifiers are all greedy; they match as much text as
possible. Sometimes this behaviour isn't desired; if the RE
<.*> is matched against '<H1>title</H1>', it will match the
entire string, and not just '<H1>'.
Adding "?" after the qualifier makes it perform the match in
non-greedy or minimal fashion; as few characters as
possible will be matched. Using .*? in the previous
expression will match only '<H1>'.
- {m,n}
- Causes the resulting RE to match from
m to n repetitions of the preceding RE, attempting to
match as many repetitions as possible. For example, a{3,5}
will match from 3 to 5 "a" characters. Omitting m is the same
as specifying 0 for the lower bound; omitting n specifies an
infinite upper bound.
- {m,n}?
- Causes the resulting RE to
match from m to n repetitions of the preceding RE,
attempting to match as few repetitions as possible. This is
the non-greedy version of the previous qualifier. For example, on the
6-character string 'aaaaaa', a{3,5} will match 5 "a"
characters, while a{3,5}? will only match 3 characters.
- "\"
- Either escapes special characters (permitting you to match
characters like "*", "?", and so forth), or
signals a special sequence; special sequences are discussed below.
If you're not using a raw string to
express the pattern, remember that Python also uses the
backslash as an escape sequence in string literals; if the escape
sequence isn't recognized by Python's parser, the backslash and
subsequent character are included in the resulting string. However,
if Python would recognize the resulting sequence, the backslash should
be repeated twice. This is complicated and hard to understand, so
it's highly recommended that you use raw strings for all but the
simplest expressions.
- []
- Used to indicate a set of characters. Characters can
be listed individually, or a range of characters can be indicated by
giving two characters and separating them by a "-". Special
characters are not active inside sets. For example, [akm$]
will match any of the characters "a", "k",
"m", or "$"; [a-z]
will match any lowercase letter, and [a-zA-Z0-9] matches any
letter or digit. Character classes such as \w or \
S (defined below) are also acceptable inside a range. If you want to
include a "]" or a "-" inside a set, precede it with a
backslash, or place it as the first character. The
pattern []] will match ']', for example.
You can match the characters not within a range by complementing
the set. This is indicated by including a
"^" as the first character of the set; "^" elsewhere will
simply match the "^" character. For example, [5]
will match any character except "5".
- "|"
- A|B, where A and B can be arbitrary REs,
creates a regular expression that will match either A or B. This can
be used inside groups (see below) as well. To match a literal "|",
use \|, or enclose it inside a character class, as in [|].
- (...)
- Matches whatever regular expression is inside the
parentheses, and indicates the start and end of a group; the contents
of a group can be retrieved after a match has been performed, and can
be matched later in the string with the \number special
sequence, described below. To match the literals "(" or "')",
use \( or \), or enclose them inside a character
class: [(] [)].
- (?...)
- This is an extension notation (a "?" following a
"(" is not meaningful otherwise). The first character after
the "?"
determines what the meaning and further syntax of the construct is.
Extensions usually do not create a new group;
(?P<name>...) is the only exception to this rule.
Following are the currently supported extensions.
- (?iLmsx)
- (One or more letters from the set "i",
"L", "m", "s", "x".) The group matches
the empty string; the letters set the corresponding flags
(re.I, re.L, re.M, re.S,
re.X) for the entire regular expression. This is useful if
you wish to include the flags as part of the regular expression, instead
of passing a flag argument to the compile() function.
- (?:...)
- A non-grouping version of regular parentheses.
Matches whatever regular expression is inside the parentheses, but the
substring matched by the
group cannot be retrieved after performing a match or
referenced later in the pattern.
- (?P<name>...)
- Similar to regular parentheses, but
the substring matched by the group is accessible via the symbolic group
name name. Group names must be valid Python identifiers. A
symbolic group is also a numbered group, just as if the group were not
named. So the group named 'id' in the example above can also be
referenced as the numbered group 1.
For example, if the pattern is
(?P<id>[a-zA-Z_]\w*), the group can be referenced by its
name in arguments to methods of match objects, such as m.group('id')
or m.end('id'), and also by name in pattern text
(e.g. (?P=id)) and replacement text (e.g. \g<id>).
- (?P=name)
- Matches whatever text was matched by the
earlier group named name.
- (?#...)
- A comment; the contents of the parentheses are
simply ignored.
- (?=...)
- Matches if ... matches next, but doesn't
consume any of the string. This is called a lookahead assertion. For
example, Isaac (?=Asimov) will match 'Isaac ' only if it's
followed by 'Asimov'.
- (?!...)
- Matches if ... doesn't match next. This
is a negative lookahead assertion. For example,
Isaac (?!Asimov) will match 'Isaac ' only if it's not
followed by 'Asimov'.
The special sequences consist of "\" and a character from the
list below. If the ordinary character is not on the list, then the
resulting RE will match the second character. For example,
\$ matches the character "$".
- \number
- Matches the contents of the group of the
same number. Groups are numbered starting from 1. For example,
(.+) \1 matches 'the the' or '55 55', but not
'the end' (note
the space after the group). This special sequence can only be used to
match one of the first 99 groups. If the first digit of number
is 0, or number is 3 octal digits long, it will not be interpreted
as a group match, but as the character with octal value number.
Inside the "[" and "]" of a character class, all numeric
escapes are treated as characters.
- \A
- Matches only at the start of the string.
- \b
- Matches the empty string, but only at the
beginning or end of a word. A word is defined as a sequence of
alphanumeric characters, so the end of a word is indicated by
whitespace or a non-alphanumeric character. Inside a character range,
\b represents the backspace character, for compatibility with
Python's string literals.
- \B
- Matches the empty string, but only when it is
not at the beginning or end of a word.
- \d
- Matches any decimal digit; this is
equivalent to the set [0-9].
- \D
- Matches any non-digit character; this is
equivalent to the set [00-9].
- \s
- Matches any whitespace character; this is
equivalent to the set [ \t\n\r\f\v].
- \S
- Matches any non-whitespace character; this is
equivalent to the set [^ \t\n\r\f\v].
- \w
- When the LOCALE flag is not specified,
matches any alphanumeric character; this is equivalent to the set
[a-zA-Z0-9_]. With LOCALE, it will match the set
[0-9_] plus whatever characters are defined as letters for the
current locale.
- \W
- When the LOCALE flag is not specified,
matches any non-alphanumeric character; this is equivalent to the set
[â-zA-Z0-9_]. With LOCALE, it will match any
character not in the set [0-9_], and not defined as a letter
for the current locale.
- \Z
- Matches only at the end of the string.
- \\
- Matches a literal backslash.
guido@python.org
