Python Regex Question

[David]

> re.search(expr, string) compiles and searches every time. This can
> potentially be more expensive in calculating power. especially if you
> have to use the expression a lot of times.

The re module-level helper functions cache expressions and their
compiled form in a dict. They are only compiled once. The main
overhead would be for repeated dict lookups.

See sre.py (included from re.py) for more details. /usr/lib/python2.4/sre.py