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<H2><A NAME=
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4.2.2 Matching vs Searching
Python offers two different primitive operations based on regular
expressions: match and search. If you are accustomed to Perl's
semantics, the search operation is what you're looking for. See the
<tt class=
"function">search()
</tt> function and corresponding method of compiled
regular expression objects.
Note that match may differ from search using a regular expression
beginning with
"<tt class="character
">^</tt>":
"<tt class="character
">^</tt>" matches only at the
start of the string, or in
<tt class=
"constant">MULTILINE
</tt> mode also immediately
following a newline. The ``match'' operation succeeds only if the
pattern matches at the start of the string regardless of mode, or at
the starting position given by the optional
<var>pos
</var> argument
regardless of whether a newline precedes it.
<div class=
"verbatim"><pre>
re.compile(
"a").match(
"ba",
1) # succeeds
re.compile(
"^a").search(
"ba",
1) # fails; 'a' not at start
re.compile(
"^a").search(
"\na",
1) # fails; 'a' not at start
re.compile(
"^a", re.M).search(
"\na",
1) # succeeds
re.compile(
"^a", re.M).search(
"ba",
1) # fails; no preceding \n
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