Regular expression doubt

[abby08]

problem : atleast 2 char string wherein 1 char should be between a-k , second char should a number divisible by 3 and then any digit or character.

import re
patt=re.compile(r"[a-k][0369][a-zA-Z0-9#]*")
m=patt.search("aaa9#")
if(m!=None):
    print("Matched")
else:
    print("Not Matched")

Why does above program gives Matched?

[dwblas]

There is an old saying, "you have to solve a problem. You decide to use regular expressions. Now you have two problems." So unless you are required to use regular expressions, it is easier and more straight forward to use if statements

## atleast 2 char string
test_string="aaa9#"
if len(test_string > 1):
    ## wherein 1 char should be between a-k
    ## I assume this means the first character
    if "a" <= test_string[0] <= "k":
        ## second char should a number divisible by 3

        ## *****Your test string fails here*****
        if test_string[1].isdigit() and 0 == int(test_string[1]) % 3:
            print("Matched")

[Rabbit]

Because the substring "a9" matches your regex. Nothing in your regex says the whole string has to conform.

[Luuk]

@Rabbit is right, and maybe a bit 'off-topic', but yesterday I was reading this on stackoverflow. which might be of interest. it's about using regular expressions … 😉