Does Python optimize regexes?

[Jason Smith]

Hi.  I just have a question about optimizations Python does when 
converting to bytecode.

import re
for someString in someListOfStrings:
	if re.match('foo', someString):
		print someString, "matched!"

Does Python notice that re.match is called with the same expression, and 
thus lift it out of the loop?  Or do I need to always optimize by hand 
using re.compile?  I suspect so because the Python bytecode generator 
would hardly know about a library function like re.compile, unlike e.g. 
Perl, with builtin REs.

Thanks much for any clarification or advice.

-- 
Jason Smith
Open Enterprise Systems
Bangkok, Thailand
http://oes.co.th
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