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Python Regular Expressions in Python Introduction to Regular Expressions Email Groups

Posted by Michael Blum
Michael Blum
254 Points

Code only works if written in one line

The code bellow runs great when I use it on everyother IDE (except this site) Furthermore, if I try writing it like this : contacts = re.search(r''' ^(?P<email>[-\w\d.+]+@[-\w\d.+]+),\s (?P<phone>'\d{3}-\d{3}-\d{4}),\s (?P<twitter>@[\d\w]+)$ ''', string, re.X|re.M)

It would find nothing. Can someone help me please?

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.+]+),\s(?P<phone>\d{3}-\d{3}-\d{4}),\s(?P<twitter>@[\d\w]+)', string)

1 Answer

Nathan Tallack
Nathan Tallack
22,158 Points
Nathan Tallack
Nathan Tallack
22,158 Points

You can split your regex over multiple lines. It is just a string, so string concatenation works.

# One line
contacts = re.search(r'(?P<email>[-\w\d.+]+@[-\w\d.+]+),\s(?P<phone>\d{3}-\d{3}-\d{4}),\s(?P<twitter>@[\d\w]+)', string)

# Two lines
contacts = re.search(r'(?P<email>[-\w\d.+]+@[-\w\d.+]+),\s(?P<phone>\d{3}-\d{3}-\d{4}),'
                      '\s(?P<twitter>@[\d\w]+)', string)

Just take care not to mix your " and ' quotes. ;)

Michael Blum
Michael Blum
254 Points

Thanks!