Path: csiph.com!fu-berlin.de!uni-berlin.de!not-for-mail
From: Peter Otten <__peter__@web.de>
Newsgroups: comp.lang.python
Subject: Re: one more question on regex
Date: Fri, 22 Jan 2016 16:47:57 +0100
Organization: None
Lines: 21
Message-ID: <mailman.171.1453477686.15297.python-list@python.org>
References: <n7ti39$7rt$1@gioia.aioe.org>
Mime-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="ISO-8859-1"
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7Bit
X-Trace: news.uni-berlin.de qAP+nL0XkVztTlNm9499tgYXT1LokKvHUkRffNt1VikQ==
Return-Path: <python-python-list@m.gmane.org>
X-Original-To: python-list@python.org
Delivered-To: python-list@mail.python.org
X-Spam-Status: OK 0.002
X-Spam-Evidence: '*H*': 1.00; '*S*': 0.00; 'subject:question': 0.08; 'any.': 0.09; 'received:80.91': 0.09; 'received:80.91.229': 0.09; 'received:gmane.org': 0.09; 'received:list': 0.09; 'python': 0.10; 'received:80.91.229.3': 0.16; 'received:dip0.t-ipconnect.de': 0.16; 'received:io': 0.16; 'received:plane.gmane.org': 0.16; 'received:psf.io': 0.16; 'received:t-ipconnect.de': 0.16; 'wrote:': 0.16; '>>>': 0.20; 'explicit': 0.22; 'suppose': 0.22; 'import': 0.24; 'header:User-Agent:1': 0.26; 'header:X-Complaints- To:1': 0.26; 'there': 0.36; 'to:addr:python-list': 0.36; 'subject:: ': 0.37; 'received:org': 0.37; 'thought': 0.37; 'someone': 0.38; 'why': 0.39; 'to:addr:python.org': 0.40; 'received:de': 0.40; 'subject:more': 0.61; 'aka': 0.91
X-Injected-Via-Gmane: http://gmane.org/
X-Gmane-NNTP-Posting-Host: p57bd8bb3.dip0.t-ipconnect.de
User-Agent: KNode/4.13.3
X-BeenThere: python-list@python.org
X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.20+
Precedence: list
List-Id: General discussion list for the Python programming language <python-list.python.org>
List-Unsubscribe: <https://mail.python.org/mailman/options/python-list>, <mailto:python-list-request@python.org?subject=unsubscribe>
List-Archive: <http://mail.python.org/pipermail/python-list/>
List-Post: <mailto:python-list@python.org>
List-Help: <mailto:python-list-request@python.org?subject=help>
List-Subscribe: <https://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list>, <mailto:python-list-request@python.org?subject=subscribe>
Xref: csiph.com comp.lang.python:102021

mg wrote:

> python 3.4.3
> 
> import re
> re.search('(ab){2}','abzzabab')
> <_sre.SRE_Match object; span=(4, 8), match='abab'>
> 
>>>> re.findall('(ab){2}','abzzabab')
> ['ab']
> 
> Why for search() the match is 'abab' and for findall the match is 'ab'?

I suppose someone thought it was convenient for findall to return the 
explicit groups if there are any. If you want the whole match aka group(0) 
you can get that with

>>> re.findall('(?:ab){2}','abzzabab')
['abab']