RegEx Competition!
Saturday February 21, 2009
NOTE: Please don't click on any links in this post until you read it through.
Even if you have taken the "Hello, World!" crash course in Python, you would be forgiven if you were unsure of the difference between[at]about.com (substituting '@' for the [at]).
Even if you have taken the "Hello, World!" crash course in Python, you would be forgiven if you were unsure of the difference between
(?P<name>..) and (?P=name) when using Python regular expressions. The fact is that to one who is good with a hammer everything looks like a nail. Consequently, our tendency as humans is to try to make everything a nail on which we can use a hammer. A good sign of this "syndrome" is an inability to name at least 21 of the 35 different regex symbols and phrases found in Python - that is only 60% of what is available to you in the re module. As most could not, a competition might well profit us all. The challenge:
Name all 35 symbols and phrases without looking at the RegEx Glossary of this site.You are on your honour not to cheat. Whoever does it first will get their props by due recognition in this space, accompanied by their photo if they send it. The competition runs until 1st March 2009 (exclusive). Please do not post your answer in the comments but send me your answer via email at python.guide
