Why does the Regex compiler compile in this way?

Question

import re
groupRegex = re.compile(r'(\d\d\d).(\d\d\d)-(\d\d\d\d)')                            
print(groupRegex.findall('Cell: 514.552-2345 Work: 512-323-5543'))

[('514', '552', '2345'), ('512', '323', '5543')]

Why doesn't it return [('514', '552', '2345')] and not the "Work" phone number? The period in this instance is acting like a hyphen. Please explain in the most basic way, thanks.

score 0 · Answer 1 · answered Jun 07 '20 at 07:31

0

The regex compiler will compile the . as a regex operator and not the "dot" as a character. You must escape it to get the correct output.

import re
groupRegex = re.compile(r'(\d\d\d)\.(\d\d\d)-(\d\d\d\d)')                            
print(groupRegex.findall('Cell: 514.552-2345 Work: 512-323-5543'))

[('514', '552', '2345'), ('512', '323', '5543')]

answered Jun 07 '20 at 07:31

Chintan Rajvir

689
6
20

Appreciate it!! – Flux87 Jun 07 '20 at 08:13

score -1 · Answer 2 · answered Jun 07 '20 at 07:30

-1

"." in regex matches any character. If you want to match a literal . you need to use \. to escape it

answered Jun 07 '20 at 07:30

Ben K

344
2
5

Why does the Regex compiler compile in this way?

2 Answers2