diff --git a/Doc/library/re.rst b/Doc/library/re.rst index a9e6ac30d16c88..8e279049a1c2d2 100644 --- a/Doc/library/re.rst +++ b/Doc/library/re.rst @@ -1562,16 +1562,22 @@ search() vs. match() .. sectionauthor:: Fred L. Drake, Jr. -Python offers two different primitive operations based on regular expressions: -:func:`re.match` checks for a match only at the beginning of the string, while -:func:`re.search` checks for a match anywhere in the string (this is what Perl -does by default). +Python offers different primitive operations based on regular expressions: + ++ :func:`re.match` checks for a match only at the beginning of the string ++ :func:`re.search` checks for a match anywhere in the string + (this is what Perl does by default) ++ :func:`re.fullmatch` checks for entire string to be a match + For example:: >>> re.match("c", "abcdef") # No match >>> re.search("c", "abcdef") # Match + >>> re.fullmatch("p.*n", "python") # Match + + >>> re.fullmatch("r.*n", "python") # No match Regular expressions beginning with ``'^'`` can be used with :func:`search` to restrict the match at the beginning of the string:: @@ -1585,8 +1591,8 @@ Note however that in :const:`MULTILINE` mode :func:`match` only matches at the beginning of the string, whereas using :func:`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 + >>> re.match("X", "A\nB\nX", re.MULTILINE) # No match + >>> re.search("^X", "A\nB\nX", re.MULTILINE) # Match