On Fri, Sep 21, 2007 at 12:05:51PM -0700, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote regarding Re:
RE Help:
>
> >
> > x = re.compile('START(.*)END', re.DOTALL)
>
> You'll want to use a non-greedy match:
>
> x = re.compile(r"START(.*?)END", re.DOTALL)
>
> Otherwise the . will match END as well.
The . will only consume END if there is another END to match later on in the
string. And then it's a question of desired fuctionality. If the given string
is: "abcdSTARTefgENDxyzENDhijk" do you want to match "STARTefgEND" (in which
case you need a non-greedy match r".*?" )? or do you want to match
"STARTefgENDxyzEND" (in which case you need a greedy match: r".*" )?
Cheers,
Cliff
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