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Python Regular Expressions in Python Introduction to Regular Expressions Word Length

taliarosen
taliarosen
2,492 Points

why is my variable not being a variable

the variable "count" is not being recognized as a variable and so I'm not getting the right output

word_length.py
import re

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

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

1 Answer

Chris Freeman
MOD
Chris Freeman
Treehouse Moderator 68,428 Points

Hey taliarosen, you are on the right path.

As written the letters “count” are going to be seen as a string. The variable needs to be evaluated as an integer before incorporating it into the string.

The hard part is that most formatting syntaxes use the curly brackets as field identifiers and may be confused by the regex count specifier.

To signify to keep (or escape) a literal curly bracket, instead of using it as a field identifier, use a doubled curly brace. This means you might see three in a row: two for the literal curly brace and on for the field marker.

So if you convert your regex into an f-string it would look like:

f'\w{{{count},}}'
#   LLF     F LL
# L marks Literal curly bracket
# F marks field curly bracket 

Post back if you need more help. Good luck!!!