On 07Jan2009 19:51, Ken D'Ambrosio <k...@jots.org> wrote: | Hi, all. As a recovering Perl guy, I have to admit I don't quite "get" | the re module. For example, I'd like to do a few things (I'm going to use | phone numbers, 'cause that's what I'm currently dealing with): | 12345678900 -- How would I: | - Get just the area code? | - Get just the seven-digit number? | | In Perl, I'd so something like | m/^1(...)(.......)/; | and then I'd have the numbers in $1 and $2, respectively. But the Python | stuff simply isn't clicking for me. If anyone could supply concrete | examples of how to do the problem, above, that would be terrific.
I presume you're consulting this: http://docs.python.org/library/re.html#module-re Something like this (untested): import re phone = '12345678900' num_re = re.compile('^1(...)(.......)') num_re is now a regular expression object: http://docs.python.org/library/re.html#regular-expression-objects much as you get from a "precompiled" perl regular expression. m = num_re.match(phone) m is now the result of a match against the phone number: http://docs.python.org/library/re.html#id1 m.group(0) is what was matched by the whole expression. m.group(1) is perl's $1, m.group(2) is $2 etc. For example: area_code = m.group(1) There is also an expand() method that accepts \1, \2 etc in its template. For direct substitutions (as in perl's s/this/that/) there is the regular expression object sub() method. It's a bit more broken out than you normally get in perl, but the pieces are all there. Cheers, -- Cameron Simpson <c...@zip.com.au> DoD#743 http://www.cskk.ezoshosting.com/cs/ Teamwork is essential. It lets you blame someone else. -- http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list
