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Python Regular Expressions in Python Introduction to Regular Expressions Word Length

Posted by Gregory James
Gregory James
6,537 Points

word length

Can someone explain this challenge in a little more detail? I passed it with this code but I don't understand how, I just tried stuff lol

word_length.py 
import re

# EXAMPLE:
# >>> find_words(4, "dog, cat, baby, balloon, me")
# ['baby', 'balloon']

def find_words(count, str1):
    result = re.findall(r'\w+' * count, str1)
    return result

1 Answer

Steven Parker
Steven Parker
231,248 Points
Steven Parker
Steven Parker
231,248 Points

It's funny how wild guesses sometimes work! In this case, the regex "\w+" means "one or more word characters". So when you multiply it by a minimum length, the resulting regex will match anything of that length or longer, which fits the instructions.

For example, with a length of 4, you'll get "\w+\w+\w+\w+". So while any of the characters can have extras, at least 4 characters (with no extras) must be present to fulfill the regex. Unconventional, but it works!

A more typical (and compact) regex to do that same job would be "\w{4,}".