https://github.com/python/cpython/commit/1557da622c89985d14b781bef91e9aaa6e1f88c4
commit: 1557da622c89985d14b781bef91e9aaa6e1f88c4
branch: main
author: Serhiy Storchaka <storch...@gmail.com>
committer: hugovk <1324225+hug...@users.noreply.github.com>
date: 2025-04-10T16:41:41+03:00
summary:
gh-106482: Clarify documentation of character set in RE (#106517)
Co-authored-by: Martin Panter <vadm...@users.noreply.github.com>
Co-authored-by: Hugo van Kemenade <1324225+hug...@users.noreply.github.com>
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
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