Python regex `compile` function
Python regex compile() function explained with examples. Includes learning tasks.
Python regex compile
The compile
function compiles a regular expression pattern into a regular expression object
, which can be used for matching using its match()
, search()
, etc. methods.
Syntax
re.compile(pattern, flags=0)
The expression’s behaviour can be modified by specifying a flags value (discussed earlier). Values can be any of the following variables, combined using bitwise OR (the |
operator).
For example:
m = re.match(pattern, string)
is equivalent to:
p = re.compile(pattern)
m = p.match(string)
Note that the programs that use only a few regular expressions at a time don’t need to compile regular expressions (recent patterns are cached automatically due to re._MAXCACHE
setting).
Get hands-on with 1400+ tech skills courses.