re

re — Regular expression operations

Source code: Lib/re.py

This module provides regular expression matching operations similar to those found in Perl.

Both patterns and strings to be searched can be Unicode strings as well as 8-bit strings. However, Unicode strings and 8-bit strings cannot be mixed: that is, you cannot match a Unicode string with a byte pattern or vice-versa; similarly, when asking for a substitution, the replacement string must be of the same type as both the pattern and the search string.

Regular expressions use the backslash character ('\') to indicate special forms or to allow special characters to be used without invoking their special meaning. This collides with Python’s usage of the same character for the same purp