regular expression reverse match?

[Jay Dorsey]

Ron Adam wrote:

> Is it possible to match a string to regular expression pattern instead
> of the other way around?
> 
> For example,  instead of finding a match  within a string,  I want to
> find out, (pass or fail), if a string is a partial match to an re.
> 
> Given an  re of   'abcd and a bunch of other stuff'  
> 
> This is what i'm looking for:
> 
> 	string  /  result
>  	'a'  /  pass
> 	'ab' /  pass
> 	'abc'  / pass
> 	'abd'  /  fail
> 	'aaaa'  /  fail
> 	'abcd and a bunch of other stuff and then some'  /  fail
> 

How about:

 >>> matcher = "abcd and a bunch of other stuff"
 >>> phrases = ["a", "ab", "abc", "abd", "aaaa", "abcd and a bunch of 
other stuff and then some"]
 >>> for phrase in phrases:
... 	if phrase == matcher[:len(phrase)]: print "pass"
...	else: print "fail"
...
pass
pass
pass
fail
fail
fail


Jay