2009/7/22 Steven D'Aprano <steve@pearwood.info>:
The rationale is to make the following idiom easier:
m = re.match(s, pattern1) if not m: m = re.match(s, pattern2) if not m: m = re.match(s, pattern3) if not m: m = re.match(s, pattern4) if m: m.group()
which will become:
m = re.multimatch(s, pattern1, pattern2, pattern3, pattern4) if m: m.group()
Is there any support or objections to this proposal? Any comments?
I don't like it very much because it would only work for uncompiled patterns. All functions in re has a RegexObject counterpart, but multisearch() and multimatch() obviously would not. For the quoted example I'd usually try to create one regex that matches all four patterns, or use a loop: for pat in (pattern1, pattern2, pattern3, pattern4): m = re.match(s, pat) if m: m.group() break -- mvh Björn