one more question on regex

[Peter Otten]

mg wrote:

> python 3.4.3
> 
> import re
> re.search('(ab){2}','abzzabab')
> <_sre.SRE_Match object; span=(4, 8), match='abab'>
> 
>>>> re.findall('(ab){2}','abzzabab')
> ['ab']
> 
> Why for search() the match is 'abab' and for findall the match is 'ab'?

I suppose someone thought it was convenient for findall to return the 
explicit groups if there are any. If you want the whole match aka group(0) 
you can get that with

>>> re.findall('(?:ab){2}','abzzabab')
['abab']