Is there a maximum length of a regular expression in python?

[Steve Holden]

Bryan Olson wrote:
> Roy Smith wrote:
> 
>> olekristianvillabo at gmail.com wrote:
>>
>>
>>
>>>I have a regular expression that is approximately 100k bytes. (It is
>>>basically a list of all known norwegian postal numbers and the
>>>corresponding place with | in between. I know this is not the intended
>>>use for regular expressions, but it should nonetheless work.
>>>
>>>the pattern is
>>>ur'(N-|NO-)?(5259 HJELLESTAD|4026 STAVANGER|4027 STAVANGER........|8305
>>>SVOLVÆR)'
>>>
>>>The error message I get is:
>>>RuntimeError: internal error in regular expression engine
>>
>>
>>I don't know of any stated maximum length, but I'm not at all surprised 
>>this causes the regex compiler to blow up.  This is clearly a case of regex 
>>being the wrong tool for the job.
> 
> 
> Does no one care about an internal error in the regular expression
> engine?
> 
> 
Not one that requires parsing a 100 kilobyte re that should be replaced 
by something more sensible, no.

regards
  Steve
-- 
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