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Christopher Earle
Courses Plus Student 22,340 PointsPython RegEx: Create a variable named players ...
Hi,
I'm trying to create code using search() or match() to return the first name, last name, and score. In a local environment, I successfully captured all groups correctly by replacing search() with findall() and concatenating the results as players = pattern1matches + pattern2matches + pattern3matches. However, I'm not sure how to accomplish the task using search() or match() because '+' is an unknown operator for match objects. Also, I'm sure that there's a cleaner solution to accomplish the task, I just don't know what it is ...
I'd really appreciate any help!
import re
string = '''Love, Kenneth: 20
Chalkley, Andrew: 25
McFarland, Dave: 10
Kesten, Joy: 22
Stewart Pinchback, Pinckney Benton: 18'''
pattern1 = re.compile(r"""
(?P<last_name>\w+)
,\s
(?P<first_name>\w+)
:\s
(?P<score>\d+)$
""", re.X|re.M)
pattern2 = re.compile(r"""
(?P<first_name>^\w+)
\s
(?P<last_name>\w+)
,\s\w+\s\w+:\s
(?P<score>\d+)$
""", re.X|re.M)
pattern3 = re.compile(r"""
(?P<first_name>\w+)
\s
(?P<last_name>\w+)
:\s
(?P<score>\d+)$
""", re.X|re.M)
pattern1matches = pattern1.search(string)
pattern2matches = pattern2.search(string)
pattern3matches = pattern3.search(string)
2 Answers
Chris Freeman
Treehouse Moderator 68,423 PointsOne element of this challenge that gets misinterpreted is the last entry. It is a person with two last names and two first names. (what? yes!)
When applying search patterns, using search() will only return the first item found, using match() will only return the first item found starting from the first character. To find all of the non-overlapping matches use findall().
>>> print(pattern1.findall(string))
[('Love', 'Kenneth', '20'), ('Chalkley', 'Andrew', '25'), ('McFarland', 'Dave', '10'), ('Kesten', 'Joy', '22')]
You can compile your patterns into a single pattern by combining character variances into sets using [ ] as follows:
pattern_all = re.compile(r"""
(?P<last_name>[\w ]+)
,\s
(?P<first_name>[\w ]+)
:\s
(?P<score>\d+)$
""", re.X|re.M)
print(pattern_all.findall(string))
Running in interactive Python:
$ python3
Python 3.4.3 (default, Oct 14 2015, 20:28:29)
[GCC 4.8.4] on linux
Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information.
>>> import re
>>>
>>> string = '''Love, Kenneth: 20
... Chalkley, Andrew: 25
... McFarland, Dave: 10
... Kesten, Joy: 22
... Stewart Pinchback, Pinckney Benton: 18'''
>>>
>>> pattern_all = re.compile(r"""
... (?P<last_name>[\w ]+)
... ,\s
... (?P<first_name>[\w ]+)
... :\s
... (?P<score>\d+)$
... """, re.X|re.M)
>>>
>>> print(pattern_all.findall(string))
[('Love', 'Kenneth', '20'), ('Chalkley', 'Andrew', '25'), ('McFarland', 'Dave', '10'), ('Kesten', 'Joy', '22'), ('Stewart Pinchback', 'Pinckney Benton', '18')]
>>>
Christopher Earle
Courses Plus Student 22,340 PointsChris,
Thanks so much for the hint and helpful info. Worked like a charm!