[issue19055] Regular expressions: * does not match as many repetitions as possible.

Ezio Melotti added the comment: I agree. -- resolution: -> works for me stage: needs patch -> resolved status: open -> closed ___ Python tracker ___

[issue19055] Regular expressions: * does not match as many repetitions as possible.

Serhiy Storchaka added the comment: I think this issue can be closed. Behavior and documentation are correct and match one other. Nothing to do with it. -- ___ Python tracker __

[issue19055] Regular expressions: * does not match as many repetitions as possible.

Changes by Ezio Melotti : -- assignee: -> docs@python components: +Documentation keywords: +easy nosy: +docs@python stage: -> needs patch type: behavior -> enhancement ___ Python tracker _

[issue19055] Regular expressions: * does not match as many repetitions as possible.

Jason Stumpf added the comment: I like that clearer description. "as produce matches" is more correct than "as possible". -- ___ Python tracker ___

[issue19055] Regular expressions: * does not match as many repetitions as possible.

R. David Murray added the comment: The documentation is correct and unambiguous. Regular expressions just aren't very intuitive. The documentation says "Causes the resulting RE to match 0 or more repetitions of the preceding RE, as many repetitions as are possible." "as many repetitions of

[issue19055] Regular expressions: * does not match as many repetitions as possible.

Jason Stumpf added the comment: I understand what's happening, but that is not what the documentation describes. If the behaviour is correct, the documentation is incorrect. -- ___ Python tracker

[issue19055] Regular expressions: * does not match as many repetitions as possible.

Matthew Barnett added the comment: The behaviour is correct. Here's a summary of what's happening:- First iteration of the repeated group: Try the first branch. Can match "a". Second iteration of the repeated group: Try the first branch. Can't match "a". Try the second branch. C

[issue19055] Regular expressions: * does not match as many repetitions as possible.

Jason Stumpf added the comment: Sorry, that implication was backwards. I don't think I can prove from just the documentation that '(a|ab)*' can match 'aba' in certain contexts. If the docs said: "* attempts to match again after each match of the preceding regular expression." I think it would

[issue19055] Regular expressions: * does not match as many repetitions as possible.

Jason Stumpf added the comment: Even with the documentation to |, the documentation to * is wrong. >>> re.match('(a|ab)*c',('abac')).group(0) 'abac' >From the doc: In general, if a string p matches A and another string q matches >B, the string pq will match AB. Since '(a|ab)*c' matches 'abac'

[issue19055] Regular expressions: * does not match as many repetitions as possible.

janzert added the comment: The documentation on the | operator in the re module pretty explicitly covers this. http://docs.python.org/2/library/re.html "A|B, where A and B can be arbitrary REs, creates a regular expression that will match either A or B. An arbitrary number of REs can be separa

[issue19055] Regular expressions: * does not match as many repetitions as possible.

Changes by Serhiy Storchaka : -- versions: +Python 3.3, Python 3.4 ___ Python tracker ___ ___ Python-bugs-list mailing list Unsubscrib

[issue19055] Regular expressions: * does not match as many repetitions as possible.

Changes by Serhiy Storchaka : -- nosy: +serhiy.storchaka ___ Python tracker ___ ___ Python-bugs-list mailing list Unsubscribe: https:

[issue19055] Regular expressions: * does not match as many repetitions as possible.

Changes by David Benbennick : -- nosy: +dbenbenn ___ Python tracker ___ ___ Python-bugs-list mailing list Unsubscribe: https://mail.p

[issue19055] Regular expressions: * does not match as many repetitions as possible.

Changes by Jason Stumpf : -- components: +Regular Expressions nosy: +ezio.melotti, mrabarnett ___ Python tracker ___ ___ Python-bugs-l

[issue19055] Regular expressions: * does not match as many repetitions as possible.

New submission from Jason Stumpf: >>> re.match('(a|ab)*',('aba')).group(0) 'a' According to the documentation, the * should match as many repetitions as possible. 2 are possible, it matches 1. Reversing the order of the operands of | changes the behaviour. >>> re.match('(ab|a)*',('aba')).gro