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Python Regular Expressions in Python Introduction to Regular Expressions Word Length

Brian McGary
Brian McGary
9,289 Points
Posted by Brian McGary
Brian McGary
9,289 Points

Simpler Solution to find_words()?

I just finished the find_words() coding task and even though I got a working solution was wondering if there is a simpler one. Also, I would like to know why building out the regular expression string was needed and I could not simply plug the variable into the return.

Here is my code:

def find_words(my_count, my_str):
  regex_str = r'\w{'+str(my_count)+',}'
  return re.findall(regex_str, my_str)

[MOD: added ```python markdown formatting -cf]

1 Answer

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

Your solution is about as simple as it gets. Alternative solutions use a different formatting process to construct the string, but the end result is the same.

As for including the regex in the return statement, a modified version of your solution passes the challenge:

import re
def find_words(my_count, my_str):
    return re.findall(r'\w{'+str(my_count)+',}', my_str)

You can peruse other solutions to this challenge here