[New-bugs-announce] [issue36038] ^ used in inaccurate example in regex-howto

[Louis Michael]

New submission from Louis Michael <louism at vt.edu>:

at https://docs.python.org/3/howto/regex.html#regex-howto
and
https://docs.python.org/3.8/howto/regex.html#regex-howto
https://docs.python.org/3.7/howto/regex.html#regex-howto
https://docs.python.org/3.6/howto/regex.html#regex-howto
https://docs.python.org/3.5/howto/regex.html#regex-howto
https://docs.python.org/3.4/howto/regex.html#regex-howto
https://docs.python.org/2.7/howto/regex.html#regex-howto

The following paragraph seems to have a small issue:
"
You can match the characters not listed within the class by complementing the set. This is indicated by including a '^' as the first character of the class; '^' outside a character class will simply match the '^' character. For example, [^5] will match any character except '5'.
"
^ does not simply match ^ outside a character class since is a special character that represents the start of the string. 

I think the paragraph should read: 
You can match the characters not listed within the class by complementing the set. This is indicated by including a '^' as the first character of the class; '^' will act differently outside a character class as explained later. For example, [^5] will match any character except '5'.

----------
assignee: docs at python
components: Documentation
messages: 335953
nosy: docs at python, eric.araujo, ezio.melotti, louism, mdk, willingc
priority: normal
severity: normal
status: open
title: ^ used in inaccurate example in regex-howto
type: enhancement
versions: Python 2.7, Python 3.4, Python 3.5, Python 3.6, Python 3.7, Python 3.8

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Python tracker <report at bugs.python.org>
<https://bugs.python.org/issue36038>
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