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

Shawndee Boyd
Shawndee Boyd
6,002 Points
Posted by Shawndee Boyd
Shawndee Boyd
6,002 Points

Make a new variable, twitters

I am confuse as to what I have wrong. Please help.

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})
''', string, re.X|re.M)
print(contacts)

twitters = (re.search(r'@[\w\d]+)$', contacts, re.M))

2 Answers

Chris Freeman
MOD
Chris Freeman
Treehouse Moderator 68,423 Points
Chris Freeman
Chris Freeman
Treehouse Moderator 68,423 Points

When I run your code in ipython I get:

twitters = (re.search(r'@[\w\d]+)$', contacts, re.M))
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
error                                     Traceback (most recent call last)
<ipython-input-29-713b44e409ce> in <module>()
----> 1 twitters = (re.search(r'@[\w\d]+)$', contacts, re.M))

/usr/lib/python2.7/re.pyc in search(pattern, string, flags)
    140     """Scan through string looking for a match to the pattern, returning
    141     a match object, or None if no match was found."""
--> 142     return _compile(pattern, flags).search(string)
    143 
    144 def sub(pattern, repl, string, count=0, flags=0):

/usr/lib/python2.7/re.pyc in _compile(*key)
    242         p = sre_compile.compile(pattern, flags)
    243     except error, v:
--> 244         raise error, v # invalid expression
    245     if not bypass_cache:
    246         if len(_cache) >= _MAXCACHE:

error: unbalanced parenthesis

There are some missed placed parens In the line:

twitters = (re.search(r'@[\w\d]+)$', contacts, re.M))
  1. The parens wrapping the whole statement are unnecessary and should be removed.
  2. Add missing open paren to group the "twitter" group. Open "(" between r' and @. The close ")" appears to be in the correct place.

Try this:

twitters = re.search(r'(@[\w\d]+)$', string, re.M)
Shawndee Boyd
Shawndee Boyd
6,002 Points
Shawndee Boyd
Shawndee Boyd
6,002 Points

Thank you, Chris! I was just thinking too fast.