Possible re bug when using ".*"

[MRAB]

On 2022-12-28 18:42, Alexander Richert - NOAA Affiliate via Python-list 
wrote:
>   In a couple recent versions of Python (including 3.8 and 3.10), the
> following code:
> import re
> print(re.sub(".*", "replacement", "pattern"))
> yields the output "replacementreplacement".
> 
> This behavior does not occur in 3.6.
> 
> Which behavior is the desired one? Perhaps relatedly, I noticed that even
> in 3.6, the code
> print(re.findall(".*","pattern"))
> yields ['pattern',''] which is not what I was expecting.
> 
It's not a bug, it's a change in behaviour to bring it more into line 
with other regex implementations in other languages.