[ python-Bugs-1597014 ] Can't exclude words before capture group

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Bugs item #1597014, was opened at 2006-11-15 14:27
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Category: Regular Expressions
Group: Python 2.4
Status: Open
Resolution: None
Priority: 5
Private: No
Submitted By: Cees Timmerman (ctimmerman)
Assigned to: Gustavo Niemeyer (niemeyer)
Summary: Can't exclude words before capture group

Initial Comment:
Python 2.4.3 (#2, Oct  6 2006, 07:52:30)
[GCC 4.0.3 (Ubuntu 4.0.3-1ubuntu5)] on linux2

Tried:

>>> re.findall(r'(?!def)\b(\S+)\(', "def bla(): dof blu()")

>>> re.findall(r'(?:def){0}\b(\S+)\(', "def bla(): dof blu()")

Result:

['bla', 'blu']

Expected:

['blu']


Why doesn't (?!) work like it does here?:

>>> re.findall(r'\b(\S+): (?!bad)', "bob: bad; suzy: good")
['suzy']


Wouldn't it be nice if (^) worked?

>>> re.findall(r'\b(\S+): (^bad)', "bob: bad; suzy: good")
[]

[^()] does, sorta. Also not before a capture group:

>>> re.findall(r'\b(\S+): [^(bad)]', "bob: bad; suzy: good")
['suzy']
>>> re.findall(r'[^(def)]\b(\S+)\(', "def bla(): dof blu()")
['bla', 'blu']
>>> re.findall(r'[^(def)] (\S+)\(', "def bla(): dof blu()")
[]
>>> re.findall(r'(^def) (\S+)\(', "def bla(): dof blu()")
[('def', 'bla')]


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