v # invalid expression ?

[Anthony Liu]

I am trying to split a string like so:

re.split(',|。|、 |!|:|,|?|“|”|)| (|;',
my_string)

Python complains like so:

Traceback (most recent call last):
File "C:\Python23\co des\regextest.p y", line 27, in
-toplevel-
ultimate =
re.split(',|。|、 |!|:|,|?|“|”|)| (|;',
ch[0])
File "c:\python23\li b\sre.py", line 156, in split
return _compile(patter n, 0).split(string ,
maxsplit)
File "c:\python23\li b\sre.py", line 229, in _compile
raise error, v # invalid expression
error: nothing to repeat

Does this mean that the regular expression I pass to
the split function is not valid?

That expression is just like ',|)|#|!', that is, an
or-ed list of punctuations. Then why invalid?



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[Eric Brunel]

Re: v # invalid expression ?

Anthony Liu wrote:[color=blue]
> I am trying to split a string like so:
>
> re.split(',|。|、 |!|:|,|?|“|”|)| (|;',
> my_string)
>
> Python complains like so:
>
> Traceback (most recent call last):
> File "C:\Python23\co des\regextest.p y", line 27, in
> -toplevel-
> ultimate =
> re.split(',|。|、 |!|:|,|?|“|”|)| (|;',
> ch[0])
> File "c:\python23\li b\sre.py", line 156, in split
> return _compile(patter n, 0).split(string ,
> maxsplit)
> File "c:\python23\li b\sre.py", line 229, in _compile
> raise error, v # invalid expression
> error: nothing to repeat
>
> Does this mean that the regular expression I pass to
> the split function is not valid?
>
> That expression is just like ',|)|#|!', that is, an
> or-ed list of punctuations. Then why invalid?[/color]

Because ?, (, and ) are special characters in regular expressions. You must
escape them with a backslash:
[color=blue][color=green][color=darkred]
>>> re.split(',|。|、 |!|:|,|\\?|\\)| \\(|;', 'foo,bar(spam)' )[/color][/color][/color]
['foo', 'bar', 'spam', '']

HTH
--
- Eric Brunel <eric (underscore) brunel (at) despammed (dot) com> -
PragmaDev : Real Time Software Development Tools - http://www.pragmadev.com