Welcome to the Treehouse Community

Want to collaborate on code errors? Have bugs you need feedback on? Looking for an extra set of eyes on your latest project? Get support with fellow developers, designers, and programmers of all backgrounds and skill levels here with the Treehouse Community! While you're at it, check out some resources Treehouse students have shared here.

Looking to learn something new?

Treehouse offers a seven day free trial for new students. Get access to thousands of hours of content and join thousands of Treehouse students and alumni in the community today.

Start your free trial

Python Regular Expressions in Python Introduction to Regular Expressions Word Length

Em Noble
Em Noble
6,967 Points
Posted by Em Noble
Em Noble
6,967 Points

what else can i do?

im assuming the count variable cant go inside the curly brackets ?

word_length.py 
import re

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

def find_words(c,string):
    pattern= r'\w{c,}'
    s = re.findall(pattern,string)
    return (s)

2 Answers

Peter Vann
Peter Vann
36,427 Points

Hi Em!

You can use the count variable in the RegEx (inside the curly braces) if you cast/convert the count to a string and do some string concatenation like this:

def find_words(count, string):
    return re.findall(r'\w{' + str(count) + ',}', string)

I tested it here:

https://www.katacoda.com/courses/python/playground

Using this code:

import re

# EXAMPLE:
# >>> find_words(4, "dog, cat, baby, balloon, me")
# ['baby', 'balloon']
def find_words(count, string):
    return re.findall(r'\w{' + str(count) + ',}', string)


print( find_words(4, "dog, cat, baby, balloon, me") )

And it prints out:

['baby', 'balloon']

As expected.

I ran the code using

root@b39ef16d7dcb:/root# python3 app.py

(root@b39ef16d7dcb:/root# being just the environment prompt)

I hope that helps.

Stay safe and happy coding!

Em Noble
Em Noble
6,967 Points
Em Noble
Em Noble
6,967 Points

Yes!!

Thankyou Peter. That works.