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Python Regular Expressions in Python Introduction to Regular Expressions Email Groups

Posted by Cheri Nadell
Cheri Nadell
2,954 Points

Having trouble with regex challenge. How do I correct my statement to get a regex search object?

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.]+),\s (?P<phone>\d{3}-\d{3}-\d{4})$ ''', string, re.X|re.M)

This is not working no matter what I do. Please help.

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.]+),\s
    (?P<phone>\d{3}-\d{3}-\d{4})$
    ''', string, re.X|re.M)

2 Answers

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

You regex is trying to match entire line due to the Beginning-of-Line (^) and End-of-Line ($) tokens. Removing these passes the first task:

contacts = re.search(r'''
    (?P<email>[-\w\d.+]+@[-\w\d.]+),\s #<-- remove leading caret (^)
    (?P<phone>\d{3}-\d{3}-\d{4}) #<-- remove trailing dollar sign ($)
    ''', string, re.X|re.M)
Cheri Nadell
Cheri Nadell
2,954 Points
Cheri Nadell
Cheri Nadell
2,954 Points

Thank you. I guess I misunderstand what the '^' (caret) and the '$' (dollar sign) are about. I thought a sequence must start with the carat and always end with the dollar sign.