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Re: Python's re module and genealogy problem

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On 11 June 2014 13:23:14 BST, BrJohan <brjohan@gmail.com> wrote:
>For some genealogical purposes I consider using Python's re module.
>
>Rather many names can be spelled in a number of similar ways, and in 
>order to match names even if they are spelled differently, I will build
>
>regular expressions, each of which is supposed to match  a number of 
>similar names.

As has been mentioned, you probably want to look at fuzzy matching algorithms rather than aiming at regular expressions, although a quick search suggests there has been some work on fuzzy matching with regular expressions[1].

>Now, my problem: Is there a way to decide whether any two - or more -
>of 
>those regular expressions will match the same string?

If your regexes are truly regular expressions (see [2]*) then they represent regular languages[3], which are really sets. The intersection of these,  is another regular language. If you test the string against this it will also match both original languages.

(*this only mentions back references, but I think the look-ahead/behind assertions are also non-regular)

[1]: http://laurikari.net/tre/about/
[2]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regular_expression#Patterns_for_non-regular_languages
[3]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regular_language

Simon
-- 
Sent from Kaiten Mail. Please excuse my brevity.

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Python's re module and genealogy problem BrJohan <brjohan@gmail.com> - 2014-06-11 14:23 +0200
  Re: Python's re module and genealogy problem Robert Kern <robert.kern@gmail.com> - 2014-06-11 14:26 +0100
    Re: Python's re module and genealogy problem Mark H Harris <harrismh777@gmail.com> - 2014-06-11 09:08 -0500
  Re: Python's re module and genealogy problem Thomas Rachel <nutznetz-0c1b6768-bfa9-48d5-a470-7603bd3aa915@spamschutz.glglgl.de> - 2014-06-11 15:55 +0200
  Re: Python's re module and genealogy problem Michael Torrie <torriem@gmail.com> - 2014-06-11 09:34 -0600
  Re: Python's re module and genealogy problem Nick Cash <nick.cash@npcinternational.com> - 2014-06-11 16:21 +0000
  Re: Python's re module and genealogy problem Simon Ward <simon@bleah.co.uk> - 2014-06-11 18:21 +0100
  Re: Python's re module and genealogy problem Vlastimil Brom <vlastimil.brom@gmail.com> - 2014-06-11 20:09 +0200
  Re: Python's re module and genealogy problem BrJohan <brjohan@gmail.com> - 2014-06-13 17:17 +0200
    Re: Python's re module and genealogy problem Peter Otten <__peter__@web.de> - 2014-06-13 18:26 +0200
    Re: Python's re module and genealogy problem Dan Sommers <dan@tombstonezero.net> - 2014-06-14 05:14 +0000
  Re: Python's re module and genealogy problem Tony the Tiger <tony@tiger.invalid> - 2014-06-14 08:35 +0000

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