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Unclear about verbose regex syntax (excaping whitespace)

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  Unclear about verbose regex syntax (excaping whitespace) Roy Smith <roy@panix.com> - 2012-01-10 08:49 -0800
    Re: Unclear about verbose regex syntax (excaping whitespace) Tim Chase <python.list@tim.thechases.com> - 2012-01-10 11:34 -0600

#18774 — Unclear about verbose regex syntax (excaping whitespace)

The docs for re.VERBOSE say, "Whitespace within the pattern is ignored, except when [...] preceded by an unescaped backslash".  It's unclear exactly what that means.  If my pattern is:

<backslash><space><space>

is the second space considered to be preceded by a backslash, and thus taken literally, or does the backslash only apply to the first <space>?  I suspect the latter, but it's somewhat ambiguous.

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#18778

On 01/10/12 10:49, Roy Smith wrote:
> The docs for re.VERBOSE say, "Whitespace within the pattern is
> ignored, except when [...] preceded by an unescaped
> backslash".  It's unclear exactly what that means.  If my
> pattern is:
>
> <backslash><space><space>
>
> is the second space considered to be preceded by a backslash,
> and thus taken literally, or does the backslash only apply to
> the first<space>?  I suspect the latter, but it's somewhat
> ambiguous.

You're right (easily testable) in your suspicions that the second 
space is ignored in this case.  I suppose the documentation could 
be tweaked to read "immediately preceded".

-tkc

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