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Python Regular Expressions in Python Introduction to Regular Expressions Email Groups

Nathan McElwain
Nathan McElwain
4,575 Points
Posted by Nathan McElwain
Nathan McElwain
4,575 Points

error: bad character range

I keep getting this error 'bad character range'. I'm unable to decipher what I did in error here, and moreover, what was the "bad character range". I imagine it has something to do with the hyphens in the sets, but they're placed by themselves, not between numbers or letters.

emails.py 
import re

string = '''Love, Kenneth, kenneth+challenge@teamtreehouse.com, 555-555-5555, @kennethlove
Chalkley, Andrew, andrew@teamtreehouse.co.uk, 555-555-5556, @chalkers
McFarland, Dave, dave.mcfarland@teamtreehouse.com, 555-555-5557, @davemcfarland
Kesten, Joy, joy@teamtreehouse.com, 555-555-5558, @joykesten'''

contacts = re.search(r'''
    ^(?P<email>[-\w\d.+]+@[-\w\d.]+),\t
    (?P<phone>[\d{3}-\d{3}-\d{4}])$
''', string, re.X|re.M)

1 Answer

Chris Freeman
MOD
Chris Freeman
Treehouse Moderator 68,441 Points
Chris Freeman
Chris Freeman
Treehouse Moderator 68,441 Points

Very Close! Just a few adjustments: Remove the ^ and the $ as they mark matching from the begining of a line and matching to the end of a line. Since you're not matching on the name or twitter name, your pattern doesn't hit the start or end of the line. Second, remove the [ ] around the phone digits. They're used to mark a character range (hence the error). Corrected solution below.

contacts = re.search(r'''
    (?P<email>[-\w\d.+]+@[-\w\d.]+),\s+
    (?P<phone>\d{3}-\d{3}-\d{4})
''', string, re.X|re.M)
Nathan McElwain
Nathan McElwain
4,575 Points
Nathan McElwain
Nathan McElwain
4,575 Points

ah ha! I guess I misunderstood the ^/$ function. I thought it made the patterns run line by line, but I guess that doesn't really make sense. Oh well, live and learn! And now I have. Thank you once again!