8.3. Syntax Anchor¶

8.3.1. Rationale¶

>>> import re
>>> TEXT = 'Yuri Gagarin launched to space on Apr 12th, 1961 at 6:07 am.'

Search for letters Ap followed by any character:

>>> re.findall('Ap.', TEXT)
['Apr']

Search for uppercase letter followed by any two characters:

>>> re.findall('[A-Z]..', TEXT)
['Yur', 'Gag', 'Apr']

Example:

>>> re.findall('[0-9][0-9]..', TEXT)
['12th', '1961', '07 a']
>>>
>>> re.findall('[A-Z].. [0-9][0-9]..', TEXT)
['Apr 12th']

>>> import re
>>> TEXT = 'Yuri Gagarin launched to space on Apr 12th, 1961 at 6:07 am.'

Search for a capital letter in text at the start of a line:

>>> re.findall('^[A-Z]', TEXT)
['Y']

Search for a capital letter anywhere in text:

>>> re.findall('[A-Z]', TEXT)
['Y', 'G', 'A']

>>> import re
>>> TEXT = 'Yuri Gagarin launched to space on Apr 12th, 1961 at 6:07 am.'

Give me last three characters in a text:

>>> re.findall('...$', TEXT)
['am.']

>>> import re
>>> TEXT = 'Yuri Gagarin launched to space on Apr 12th, 1961 at 6:07 am.'

Search for a capital letter in text at the start of a line:

>>> re.findall('\A[A-Z]', TEXT)
['Y']

Note, that the output is identical to Start of a Line ^. It will differ when re.MULTILINE flag is present.

>>> re.findall('^[A-Z]', TEXT)
['Y']

>>> import re
>>> TEXT = 'Yuri Gagarin launched to space on Apr 12th, 1961 at 6:07 am.'

Give me last three characters in a text:

>>> re.findall('...\Z', TEXT)
['am.']

Note, that the output is identical to Start of a Line ^. It will differ when re.MULTILINE flag is present.

>>> re.findall('...$', TEXT)
['am.']

\G - forces the pattern to only return matches that are part of a continuous chain of matches. From the first match each subsequent match must be preceded by a match. If you break the chain the matches end.