[Python-Dev] type categories -- an example

[Jeremy Hylton]

>>>>> "AK" == Andrew Koenig <ark@research.att.com> writes:

  AK> How do I test for the third?  I guess I need to know the name of
  AK> the type of a compiled regular expression object.  Hmmm... A
  AK> quick scan through the documentation doesn't reveal it.  So I do
  AK> an experiment:

  >>>> import re re.compile("foo")
  AK>         <_sre.SRE_Pattern object at 0x111018>

  AK> Hmmm... This doesn't look good -- Can I really count on a
  AK> compiled regular expression being an instance of
  AK> _sre.SRE_Pattern for the future?

I'd put this at the module level:

compiled_re_type = type(re.compile(""))

Then you can use isistance() to test:

isinstance(re.compile("spam+"), compiled_re_type)

Jeremy