How To Check For [a-z] In String?

[Jay Dorsey]

Hank Kingwood wrote:
> This is probably an easy question, but I can't find a function (maybe my 
> syntax is off...) to search for [a-z] in a string.  If someone would 
> help out, I'd appreciate it!
> 
> Also, how would you recommend searching for the following in the same 
> string:
>   [a-z]
>   [A-Z]
>   [0-9]
>   -
> 
> My approach would be to perform four separte checks, but I'm thinking 
> there might be some cool approach that would use a dictionary or array. 
>  Ideas?

Are you looking for the actual string [a-z] in a string, or are you 
looking for the regular expression [a-z] (any one lowercase letter)

Actual string:

 >>> import re
 >>> regex = re.compile('\[a-z\]')
 >>> regex.search('123123[a-z]adsfasfd').group()
'[a-z]'

Regex pattern:
 >>> import re
 >>> regex = re.compile('[a-z]')
 >>> regex.search('123123123a123123b123123c').group()
'a'
 >>> regex.findall('123123123a123123b123123c')
['a', 'b', 'c']

You could also do:
 >>> import re
 >>> regex = re.compile('[a-z]|[A-Z]')
 >>> regex.findall('123a23423b13123c123123A123B123C')
['a', 'b', 'c', 'A', 'B', 'C']

There are probably other ways to do it with list comprehensions, but 
does that help?



Jay