spaces in re.compile()

[rbt]

AndrewN wrote:
>>>>d = re.compile(' \d{3}\.\d{3}\.\d{3} ')
>>>>d.findall(' 123.345.678 ')
> 
> [' 123.345.678 ']
> 
> Works for me.
> 

Yes, you're correct. That works if there is a space at the front and 
back. However, place '123.345.678' in a file by itself and it doesn't work.

What I'm trying to avoid is something like this '1234.345.6789' Notice 
the 4 chars in the first and last part? findall gets '234.345.678' and 
returns positive... I thought that by requiring spaces I could avoid 
matches such as this, but I was wrong. How can I get what I'm looking 
for w/o getting the other stuff as well?