Python offers two different primitive operations based on regular expressions:
re.match() checks for a match only at the beginning of the string,
while re.search() checks for a match anywhere in the string (this is what Perl does by default).
For example:
>>> re.match('a','abc') # Match <_sre.SRE_Match object at 0x02B9FBB8> >>> re.search('a','abc') # Match <_sre.SRE_Match object at 0x02B9F368> >>> re.match('c','abc') # No match >>> re.search('c','abc') # Match <_sre.SRE_Match object at 0x02B9FBB8>
Regular expressions beginning with '^' can be used with search() to restrict the match at the beginning of the string:
>>> re.search('^c','abc') # No match
>>> re.search('^a','abc') # Match <_sre.SRE_Match object at 0x02B9F368>
>>>> re.match('^c','abc') # No match
>>> re.match('^a','abc') # Match <_sre.SRE_Match object at 0x02B9FBB8>
Note however that in MULTILINE mode match() only matches at the beginning of the string, whereas using search() with a regular expression beginning with '^' will match at the beginning of each line.
>>> re.match('^X','A\nB\nX',re.MULTILINE) # No match >>> re.search('^X','A\nB\nX',re.MULTILINE) # Match <_sre.SRE_Match object at 0x02B9F368>
