Path: csiph.com!fu-berlin.de!uni-berlin.de!not-for-mail
From: Michael Torrie <torriem@gmail.com>
Newsgroups: comp.lang.python
Subject: Re: Regular expressions
Date: Tue, 03 Nov 2015 20:47:18 -0700
Lines: 19
Message-ID: <mailman.3.1446608844.16136.python-list@python.org>
References: <662g3blobme52hfoududj27err185v2npm@4ax.com> <mailman.0.1446519578.8789.python-list@python.org> <hp9g3b9hsn06edb0po8bduegjqkmpo4p8n@4ax.com> <mailman.3.1446523111.8789.python-list@python.org> <d39290cf-cb26-470f-a987-2f71e3860f97@googlegroups.com> <mailman.5.1446525488.8789.python-list@python.org> <bb15756d-7181-421d-835e-b2fbfc1c1774@googlegroups.com> <mailman.0.1446602668.16136.python-list@python.org> <n1bs2g$376$1@dont-email.me> <56397a18$0$11094$c3e8da3@news.astraweb.com>
Mime-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=windows-1252
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
X-Trace: news.uni-berlin.de KXRAU4HeIezB0k12r1khXwoDCGn9CwKBHI9QOtDNx7kw==
Return-Path: <torriem+gmail@torriefamily.org>
X-Original-To: python-list@python.org
Delivered-To: python-list@mail.python.org
X-Spam-Status: OK 0.013
X-Spam-Evidence: '*H*': 0.97; '*S*': 0.00; 'default.': 0.07; 'expressions': 0.07; 'grep': 0.09; 'indicates': 0.09; '"grep': 0.16; 'expressions.': 0.16; 'from:addr:torriem': 0.16; 'from:name:michael torrie': 0.16; 'magic': 0.16; 'received:io': 0.16; 'received:psf.io': 0.16; 'say.': 0.16; 'subject:Regular': 0.16; 'subject:expressions': 0.16; 'wrote:': 0.16; '>>>': 0.20; 'header:In-Reply-To:1': 0.24; "i've": 0.25; 'header:User-Agent:1': 0.26; 'used,': 0.27; 'least': 0.27; 'gnu': 0.27; 'regular': 0.29; 'about.': 0.29; "i'm": 0.30; 'certainly': 0.30; 'michael': 0.33; "d'aprano": 0.33; 'stands': 0.33; 'steven': 0.33; 'message- id:@gmail.com': 0.34; 'something': 0.35; 'but': 0.36; '(and': 0.36; 'mode': 0.36; 'to:addr:python-list': 0.36; 'pm,': 0.36; 'subject:: ': 0.37; 'received:org': 0.37; 'mean': 0.38; 'takes': 0.39; 'received:192': 0.39; 'to:addr:python.org': 0.40; 'still': 0.40; 'default': 0.61; 'charset:windows-1252': 0.62; 'more': 0.63; 'times': 0.63; 'course.': 0.67; 'night': 0.67; 'talking': 0.67; 'special': 0.73
X-Virus-Scanned: amavisd-new at torriefamily.org
User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (X11; Linux x86_64; rv:31.0) Gecko/20100101 Thunderbird/31.7.0
In-Reply-To: <56397a18$0$11094$c3e8da3@news.astraweb.com>
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:98206

On 11/03/2015 08:23 PM, Steven D'Aprano wrote:
>>> Grep can use regular expressions (and I do so with it regularly), but
>>> it's default mode is certainly not regular expressions ...
>>
>> Its very name indicates that its default mode most certainly is regular
>> expressions.
> 
> I don't even know what grep stands for. 
> 
> But I think what Michael may mean is that if you "grep foo", no regex magic 
> takes place since "foo" contains no metacharacters.

More likely I just don't know what I'm talking about.  I must have been
thinking about something else (shell globbing perhaps).

Certainly most of the times I've seen grep used, it's to look for a word
with no special metacharacters, as you say. Still a valid RE of course.
 But I have learned to night I don't need to resort to grep -e to use
regular expressions.  At least with GNU grep, that's the default.