Welcome to the Treehouse Community

Want to collaborate on code errors? Have bugs you need feedback on? Looking for an extra set of eyes on your latest project? Get support with fellow developers, designers, and programmers of all backgrounds and skill levels here with the Treehouse Community! While you're at it, check out some resources Treehouse students have shared here.

Looking to learn something new?

Treehouse offers a seven day free trial for new students. Get access to thousands of hours of content and join thousands of Treehouse students and alumni in the community today.

Start your free trial

Python Regular Expressions in Python Introduction to Regular Expressions Email Groups

Topher Knoll
Topher Knoll
3,572 Points
Posted by Topher Knoll
Topher Knoll
3,572 Points

Bummer: Didn't get a regex search object.

Why doesn't this produce anything???

emails.py 
import re

string = '''Love, Kenneth, kenneth+challenge@teamtreehouse.com, 555-555-5555, @kennethlove
Chalkley, Andrew, andrew@teamtreehouse.co.uk, 555-555-5556, @chalkers
McFarland, Dave, dave.mcfarland@teamtreehouse.com, 555-555-5557, @davemcfarland
Kesten, Joy, joy@teamtreehouse.com, 555-555-5558, @joykesten'''

contacts = re.search(r'''
    ^(?P<email>[-\w\d+.]+@[-\w\d.]+[^, ])\t
    (?P<phone>\d{3}-\d{3}-\d{4})?$
''', string, re.X|re.I)

1 Answer

Steven Parker
Steven Parker
231,269 Points
Steven Parker
Steven Parker
231,269 Points

At first glance, three issues stand out.

  • the "^" and "$" anchor the patterns to the beginning and end of the string, but that's not where they are
  • the comma in between is not accounted for
  • the \t only matches a tab, use \s instead to match any spacing character