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Python Regular Expressions in Python Introduction to Regular Expressions Players Dictionary and Class

January Johnson
January Johnson
23,855 Points

Didn't get the expected match

When I run my code in VSCode I get <re.Match object; span=(0, 17), match='Love, Kenneth: 20'>

But Treehouse keeps giving me

Bummer: Didn't get the expected match. Got "{'last_name': 'Love', 'first_name': ' Kenneth', 'score': ' 20'}".

players.py
import re

string = '''Love, Kenneth: 20
Chalkley, Andrew: 25
McFarland, Dave: 10
Kesten, Joy: 22
Stewart Pinchback, Pinckney Benton: 18'''

players = re.search(r'''
(?P<last_name>[\w]+\s?[\w]+?), #last name
(?P<first_name>\s[-\w]*?\s?[\w]*): #first_name
(?P<score>\s[\d]+) #score
''', string, re.X|re.M)

2 Answers

Steven Parker
Steven Parker
231,272 Points

The regex should account for spaces between the elements, but not include leading spaces as part of the elements.

Got "{'last_name': 'Love', 'first_name': ' Kenneth', 'score': ' 20'}
                                          ^                    ^
                                          |-- leading spaces --|
January Johnson
January Johnson
23,855 Points

Figured it out. I just needed to change where I was putting \s. Still, I wonder why I couldn't get the lookaround sequence to work. ??

Steven Parker
Steven Parker
231,272 Points

The lookbehind would match a name that folllows a space, but it doesn't account for having a space between the comma and the name. You still need a space (or space character class) in between the named ranges.

January Johnson
January Johnson
23,855 Points

I see. Unfortunately, the only way I understand to match but not capture the \s is to use a lookaround expression (?<=\s). But it doesn't work.