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Python Regular Expressions in Python Introduction to Regular Expressions Email Groups

Code only works if written in one line

The code bellow runs great when I use it on everyother IDE (except this site) Furthermore, if I try writing it like this : contacts = re.search(r''' ^(?P<email>[-\w\d.+]+@[-\w\d.+]+),\s (?P<phone>'\d{3}-\d{3}-\d{4}),\s (?P<twitter>@[\d\w]+)$ ''', string, re.X|re.M)

It would find nothing. Can someone help me please?

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}),\s(?P<twitter>@[\d\w]+)', string)

1 Answer

Nathan Tallack
Nathan Tallack
22,160 Points

You can split your regex over multiple lines. It is just a string, so string concatenation works.

# One line
contacts = re.search(r'(?P<email>[-\w\d.+]+@[-\w\d.+]+),\s(?P<phone>\d{3}-\d{3}-\d{4}),\s(?P<twitter>@[\d\w]+)', string)

# Two lines
contacts = re.search(r'(?P<email>[-\w\d.+]+@[-\w\d.+]+),\s(?P<phone>\d{3}-\d{3}-\d{4}),'
                      '\s(?P<twitter>@[\d\w]+)', string)

Just take care not to mix your " and ' quotes. ;)

Thanks!