[issue35653] All regular expression match groups are the empty string

[Matthew Barnett]

Matthew Barnett <python at mrabarnett.plus.com> added the comment:

Look at the spans of the groups:

>>> import re
>>> re.search(r'^(?:(\d*)(\D*))*$', "42AZ").span(1)
(4, 4)
>>> re.search(r'^(?:(\d*)(\D*))*$', "42AZ").span(2)
(4, 4)

They're telling you that the groups are matching twice (because of the outer *). The first time, they match ('42', 'AZ'); the second time, they match ('', '') at the end of the string.

Not a bug.

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resolution:  -> not a bug
stage:  -> resolved
status: open -> closed

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Python tracker <report at bugs.python.org>
<https://bugs.python.org/issue35653>
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