[Tutor] Re.findall question

[Alan Gauld]

On 26/06/12 23:30, Alexander Quest wrote:

> My question is how does Python know to return just the part in the
> parentheses and not to return the "blahblah" and the "yattayattayatta",
> etc...?

If you want to know *how* Python does it you will have to read the 
module code (probably in C so download the source code)

> ... Does the
> re.findall command by default ignore anything outside of the parentheses
> and only return the parentheses as a grouping withing one tuple

The help() function returns:

--------------
findall(pattern, string, flags=0)
     Return a list of all non-overlapping matches in the string.

     If one or more groups are present in the pattern, return a
     list of groups; this will be a list of tuples if the pattern
     has more than one group.

     Empty matches are included in the result.
------------------

So that's what its defined to do. How it does it is another matter.


-- 
Alan G
Author of the Learn to Program web site
http://www.alan-g.me.uk/