https://github.com/python/cpython/commit/1557da622c89985d14b781bef91e9aaa6e1f88c4 commit: 1557da622c89985d14b781bef91e9aaa6e1f88c4 branch: main author: Serhiy Storchaka <[email protected]> committer: hugovk <[email protected]> date: 2025-04-10T16:41:41+03:00 summary:
gh-106482: Clarify documentation of character set in RE (#106517) Co-authored-by: Martin Panter <[email protected]> Co-authored-by: Hugo van Kemenade <[email protected]> files: M Doc/library/re.rst diff --git a/Doc/library/re.rst b/Doc/library/re.rst index e2a78dc95d4ae1..a91bac53fb4e75 100644 --- a/Doc/library/re.rst +++ b/Doc/library/re.rst @@ -250,14 +250,23 @@ The special characters are: ``[a\-z]``) or if it's placed as the first or last character (e.g. ``[-a]`` or ``[a-]``), it will match a literal ``'-'``. - * Special characters lose their special meaning inside sets. For example, + * Special characters except backslash lose their special meaning inside sets. + For example, ``[(+*)]`` will match any of the literal characters ``'('``, ``'+'``, ``'*'``, or ``')'``. .. index:: single: \ (backslash); in regular expressions - * Character classes such as ``\w`` or ``\S`` (defined below) are also accepted - inside a set, although the characters they match depend on the flags_ used. + * Backslash either escapes characters which have special meaning in a set + such as ``'-'``, ``']'``, ``'^'`` and ``'\\'`` itself or signals + a special sequence which represents a single character such as + ``\xa0`` or ``\n`` or a character class such as ``\w`` or ``\S`` + (defined below). + Note that ``\b`` represents a single "backspace" character, + not a word boundary as outside a set, and numeric escapes + such as ``\1`` are always octal escapes, not group references. + Special sequences which do not match a single character such as ``\A`` + and ``\Z`` are not allowed. .. index:: single: ^ (caret); in regular expressions _______________________________________________ Python-checkins mailing list -- [email protected] To unsubscribe send an email to [email protected] https://mail.python.org/mailman3/lists/python-checkins.python.org/ Member address: [email protected]
