[Tutor] Why doesn't this regex match???

[Sheila King]

On Sat, 9 Feb 2002 09:43:31 -0500, Rick Pasotto <rick@niof.net>  wrote
about Re: [Tutor] Why doesn't this regex match???:

> On Fri, Feb 08, 2002 at 11:26:53PM -0800, Sheila King wrote:
> > 
> > So I tried the following, with the dismal results shown. Now what am I
> > doing wrong? 
> > 
> > >>> searchstring = 'ADV: FREE FREE OFFERZ!!!!'
> > >>> word = 'adv:'
> > >>> p = re.compile(r'[\b\A\s]%s[\b\Z\s]' % word, re.I)
> 
> '[]' says 'any one *character* from the set'. '\b', '\A', and '\Z' are
> not characters.
> 
> p=re.compile(r'\b%s\b' % word, re.I) ought to do what you want.
> (untested)
> 
> 'word boundary' includes 'white space before and after' and 'beginning
> and end of string'.

Actually, 
p=re.compile(r'\b%s\b' % word, re.I)

didn't do what I wanted. That's what started this whole thread.

Maybe
p = re.compile(r'(\A|\s)(%s)(\Z|\s)' % re.escape(word), re.I)

would do what I wanted. (untested)

Anyhow, after the discussion here on the list last night, and some
discussion with my project-code-partners, we've decided to forgo the
regular expressions in favor of simple string manipulations.

-- 
Sheila King
http://www.thinkspot.net/sheila/

"When introducing your puppy to an adult cat,
restrain the puppy, not the cat." -- Gwen Bailey,
_The Perfect Puppy: How to Raise a Well-behaved Dog_