Bugs item #1591319, was opened at 2006-11-06 11:49
Message generated for change (Comment added) made by niemeyer
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Category: Regular Expressions
Group: Python 2.4
>Status: Closed
>Resolution: Works For Me
Priority: 5
Private: No
Submitted By: Thomas K. (tomek74)
Assigned to: Gustavo Niemeyer (niemeyer)
Summary: replace groups doesn't work in this special case
Initial Comment:
If you have a regular expression like this:
([0-9])([a-z])?
matching this string:
1 1a
and replacing with this:
yx
you get what expected:
yx yx
BUT:
If you replace with this:
\1\2
you get nothing replaced, because the group \2
doesn't exist for the pattern "1".
But it does exist for the pattern "1a"!
We have multiple possibilities here:
1.) The string "1" gives no result, because \2
doesn't exist. The string "1a" gives a result, so the
output should be: 1a
2.) The sring "1" gives a result, because \2 is
handled like an empty string. The string "1a" gives a
result, so the output should be: 1 1a
I think the case that the sring "1" has no results,
but effects the string "1a" wich would normaly have a
result, is bad.
What are your thoughts on it?
Test code:
import re
# common variables
rawstr = r"""([0-9])([a-z])?"""
embedded_rawstr = r"""([0-9])([a-z])?"""
matchstr = """1 1a"""
# method 1: using a compile object
compile_obj = re.compile(rawstr)
match_obj = compile_obj.search(matchstr)
# method 2: using search function (w/ external flags)
match_obj = re.search(rawstr, matchstr)
# method 3: using search function (w/ embedded flags)
match_obj = re.search(embedded_rawstr, matchstr)
# Retrieve group(s) from match_obj
all_groups = match_obj.groups()
# Retrieve group(s) by index
group_1 = match_obj.group(1)
group_2 = match_obj.group(2)
# Replace string
newstr = compile_obj.subn('\1\2', 0)
----------------------------------------------------------------------
>Comment By: Gustavo Niemeyer (niemeyer)
Date: 2006-11-06 12:17
Message:
Logged In: YES
user_id=7887
Hello Thomas,
I don't understand exactly what you mean here.
This doesn't work:
>>> re.compile("([0-9])([a-z])?").subn(r"<\1\2>", "1 1a")
Traceback (most recent call last):
...
sre_constants.error: unmatched group
And this works fine:
>>> re.compile("([0-9])([a-z]?)").subn(r"<\1\2>", "1 1a")
('<1> <1a>', 2)
The example code you provided doesn't run here, because
'subn()' is being provided
bad data (check http://docs.python.org/lib/node46.html for
docs). It's also
being passed '\1\2', which is really '\x01\x02', and won't
do what you want.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
You can respond by visiting:
https://sourceforge.net/tracker/?func=detail&atid=105470&aid=1591319&group_id=5470
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