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Python Regular Expressions in Python Introduction to Regular Expressions Word Length

Posted by Deepak Nautiyal
Deepak Nautiyal
7,235 Points

[Solved] This test "....find_words() that takes a count and a string...." works in my console but fails online

Here is the piece of code that I am using for the test

def find_words(count, str):
    new_list = []
    for item in str:
        if re.search(r'\w'*count, item):
            new_list.append(item)

    return new_list

This gives correct result for below strings

print(find_words(4, ['cat','doll','baby','ballon','me','123']))
print(find_words(6, ['doll','me','InM','123456', 'Treehouse', 'student', 'Kenneth', 'Python', 'g0tcha']))

However, this script does not pass the test. It seems to return empty list.

Can anyone help?

word_length.py 
import re

# EXAMPLE:
# >>> find_words(4, "dog, cat, baby, balloon, me")
# ['baby', 'balloon']
def find_words(count, str):
    new_list = []
    for item in str:
        if re.search(r'\w'*count, item):
            new_list.append(item)

    return new_list

2 Answers

Russell Sawyer
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.a{fill-rule:evenodd;}techdegree
Russell Sawyer
Front End Web Development Techdegree Student 15,705 Points
Russell Sawyer
.a{fill-rule:evenodd;}techdegree
Russell Sawyer
Front End Web Development Techdegree Student 15,705 Points

I have noticed when assigning variables that are dedicated variables like str can cause some issues with passing these challenges.

Also, when you are searching through a string re.findall works best when looking for all the words in a string.

Lastly, re.findall requires 2 items: what you are looking for, followed by a coma, and what you are looking in. In this case your words are in the string variable.

This is the code that worked for me.

def find_words(count, string):
    return re.findall(r'\w+' * count, string)
Deepak Nautiyal
Deepak Nautiyal
7,235 Points
Deepak Nautiyal
Deepak Nautiyal
7,235 Points

Thanks Russell Sawyer . This worked :)