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Python Regular Expressions in Python Introduction to Regular Expressions Escapes

"Task 1 is no longer passing", but I did NOT even change it

Can someone please shed some light on this one. I'm trying to solve Task 2 of 2 of the Code Challenge on Regular Expressions. Task 1 has already passed, and I didn't change it. Then, I submit my code for Task 2, but I'm getting this weird error given in the subject line above. Thanks for any insights you can provide.

escapes.py
import re

def first_number(any_str):
    return(re.search(r'\d ', any_str))


def numbers(count, some_string):
    result = (re.search(r"\d" * count, some_string)
    return result

2 Answers

Chris Freeman
MOD
Chris Freeman
Treehouse Moderator 68,454 Points

A previous task may fail if a new syntax error is introduced anywhere in the code. It looks like there is a missing right paren in the second function.

Shijie Huang
Shijie Huang
2,184 Points

I have the same problem like Conrad. But I can not find the missing right paren. Can you give me extra advice about the second function.

Thanks Chris, I added the missing right paren at the end, and it finally passed. However, that error "Task 1 is no longer passing" was really misleading. :-)

Chris Freeman
Chris Freeman
Treehouse Moderator 68,454 Points

Everyone hits this at sometime. So now you know. ?

When there is a syntax error the checker isn't sophisticated enough to figure out what caused it. It simply runs tests for all the tasks so a Task 1 test will always fail first on a syntax error.