regular expression - matches

[John Salerno]

Simon Forman wrote:
> John Salerno wrote:
>> Simon Forman wrote:
>>
>>> Python's re.match() matches from the start of the string, so if you
>>> want to ensure that the whole string matches completely you'll probably
>>> want to end your re pattern with the "$" character (depending on what
>>> the rest of your pattern matches.)
>> Is that necessary? I was thinking that match() was used to match the
>> full RE and string, and if they weren't the same, they wouldn't match
>> (meaning a begin/end of string character wasn't necessary). That's wrong?
> 
> My understanding, from the docs and from dim memories of using
> re.match() long ago, is that it will match on less than the full input
> string if the re pattern allows it (for instance, if the pattern
> *doesn't* end in '.*' or something similar.)
> 
> I'd test this, though, before trusting it.
> 
> What the heck, I'll do that now:
> 
>>>> import re
>>>> re.match('ab', 'abcde')
> <_sre.SRE_Match object at 0xb6ff8790>
>>>> m = _
>>>> m.group()
> 'ab'
>>>> print re.match('ab$', 'abcde')
> None
> 
> 
> Yup!  That's the case.
> 
> Peace,
> ~Simon
> 

Thanks guys!