Issue python#10875: Update Regular Expression HOWTO; patch by 'SilentGhost'.

terryjreedy · terryjreedy · commit 8663e346dc71 · 2011-01-10T21:49:11.000Z
diff --git a/Doc/howto/regex.rst b/Doc/howto/regex.rst
@@ -5,7 +5,6 @@
 ****************************
 
 :Author: A.M. Kuchling <amk@amk.ca>
-:Release: 0.05
 
 .. TODO:
    Document lookbehind assertions
@@ -24,11 +23,6 @@
 Introduction
 ============
 
-The :mod:`re` module was added in Python 1.5, and provides Perl-style regular
-expression patterns.  Earlier versions of Python came with the :mod:`regex`
-module, which provided Emacs-style patterns.  The :mod:`regex` module was
-removed completely in Python 2.5.
-
 Regular expressions (called REs, or regexes, or regex patterns) are essentially
 a tiny, highly specialized programming language embedded inside Python and made
 available through the :mod:`re` module. Using this little language, you specify
@@ -264,7 +258,7 @@ performing string substitutions. ::
    >>> import re
    >>> p = re.compile('ab*')
    >>> p
-   <_sre.SRE_Pattern object at 80b4150>
+   <_sre.SRE_Pattern object at 0x...>
 
 :func:`re.compile` also accepts an optional *flags* argument, used to enable
 various special features and syntax variations.  We'll go over the available
@@ -362,8 +356,8 @@ information about the match: where it starts and ends, the substring it matched,
 and more.
 
 You can learn about this by interactively experimenting with the :mod:`re`
-module.  If you have Tkinter available, you may also want to look at
-:file:`Tools/scripts/redemo.py`, a demonstration program included with the
+module.  If you have :mod:`tkinter` available, you may also want to look at
+:file:`Tools/demo/redemo.py`, a demonstration program included with the
 Python distribution.  It allows you to enter REs and strings, and displays
 whether the RE matches or fails. :file:`redemo.py` can be quite useful when
 trying to debug a complicated RE.  Phil Schwartz's `Kodos
@@ -373,11 +367,10 @@ testing RE patterns.
 This HOWTO uses the standard Python interpreter for its examples. First, run the
 Python interpreter, import the :mod:`re` module, and compile a RE::
 
-   Python 2.2.2 (#1, Feb 10 2003, 12:57:01)
    >>> import re
    >>> p = re.compile('[a-z]+')
    >>> p
-   <_sre.SRE_Pattern object at 80c3c28>
+   <_sre.SRE_Pattern object at 0x...>
 
 Now, you can try matching various strings against the RE ``[a-z]+``.  An empty
 string shouldn't match at all, since ``+`` means 'one or more repetitions'.
@@ -395,7 +388,7 @@ result in a variable for later use. ::
 
    >>> m = p.match('tempo')
    >>> m
-   <_sre.SRE_Match object at 80c4f68>
+   <_sre.SRE_Match object at 0x...>
 
 Now you can query the :class:`MatchObject` for information about the matching
 string.   :class:`MatchObject` instances also have several methods and
@@ -434,7 +427,7 @@ case. ::
    >>> print(p.match('::: message'))
    None
    >>> m = p.search('::: message') ; print(m)
-   <re.MatchObject instance at 80c9650>
+   <_sre.SRE_Match object at 0x...>
    >>> m.group()
    'message'
    >>> m.span()
@@ -459,11 +452,11 @@ Two pattern methods return all of the matches for a pattern.
 
 :meth:`findall` has to create the entire list before it can be returned as the
 result.  The :meth:`finditer` method returns a sequence of :class:`MatchObject`
-instances as an :term:`iterator`. [#]_ ::
+instances as an :term:`iterator`::
 
    >>> iterator = p.finditer('12 drummers drumming, 11 ... 10 ...')
    >>> iterator
-   <callable-iterator object at 0x401833ac>
+   <callable_iterator object at 0x...>
    >>> for match in iterator:
    ...     print(match.span())
    ...
@@ -485,7 +478,7 @@ the RE string added as the first argument, and still return either ``None`` or a
    >>> print(re.match(r'From\s+', 'Fromage amk'))
    None
    >>> re.match(r'From\s+', 'From amk Thu May 14 19:12:10 1998')
-   <re.MatchObject instance at 80c5978>
+   <_sre.SRE_Match object at 0x...>
 
 Under the hood, these functions simply create a pattern object for you
 and call the appropriate method on it.  They also store the compiled object in a
@@ -687,7 +680,7 @@ given location, they can obviously be matched an infinite number of times.
    line, the RE to use is ``^From``. ::
 
       >>> print(re.search('^From', 'From Here to Eternity'))
-      <re.MatchObject instance at 80c1520>
+      <_sre.SRE_Match object at 0x...>
       >>> print(re.search('^From', 'Reciting From Memory'))
       None
 
@@ -699,11 +692,11 @@ given location, they can obviously be matched an infinite number of times.
    or any location followed by a newline character.     ::
 
       >>> print(re.search('}$', '{block}'))
-      <re.MatchObject instance at 80adfa8>
+      <_sre.SRE_Match object at 0x...>
       >>> print(re.search('}$', '{block} '))
       None
       >>> print(re.search('}$', '{block}\n'))
-      <re.MatchObject instance at 80adfa8>
+      <_sre.SRE_Match object at 0x...>
 
    To match a literal ``'$'``, use ``\$`` or enclose it inside a character class,
    as in  ``[$]``.
@@ -728,7 +721,7 @@ given location, they can obviously be matched an infinite number of times.
 
       >>> p = re.compile(r'\bclass\b')
       >>> print(p.search('no class at all'))
-      <re.MatchObject instance at 80c8f28>
+      <_sre.SRE_Match object at 0x...>
       >>> print(p.search('the declassified algorithm'))
       None
       >>> print(p.search('one subclass is'))
@@ -746,7 +739,7 @@ given location, they can obviously be matched an infinite number of times.
       >>> print(p.search('no class at all'))
       None
       >>> print(p.search('\b' + 'class' + '\b')  )
-      <re.MatchObject instance at 80c3ee0>
+      <_sre.SRE_Match object at 0x...>
 
    Second, inside a character class, where there's no use for this assertion,
    ``\b`` represents the backspace character, for compatibility with Python's
@@ -1316,8 +1309,8 @@ a regular expression that handles all of the possible cases, the patterns will
 be *very* complicated.  Use an HTML or XML parser module for such tasks.)
 
 
-Not Using re.VERBOSE
---------------------
+Using re.VERBOSE
+----------------
 
 By now you've probably noticed that regular expressions are a very compact
 notation, but they're not terribly readable.  REs of moderate complexity can
@@ -1366,8 +1359,3 @@ reference for programming in Python.  (The first edition covered Python's
 now-removed :mod:`regex` module, which won't help you much.)  Consider checking
 it out from your library.
 
-
-.. rubric:: Footnotes
-
-.. [#] Introduced in Python 2.2.2.
-
diff --git a/Misc/NEWS b/Misc/NEWS
@@ -31,6 +31,8 @@ Core and Builtins
 Library
 -------
 
+- Issue #10875: Update Regular Expression HOWTO; patch by 'SilentGhost'.
+
 - Issue #10869: Fixed bug where ast.increment_lineno modified the root
   node twice.
 
