python - re.findall not returning full match?

Question

I have a file that includes a bunch of strings like "size=XXX;". I am trying python's re module for the first time and am a bit mystified by the following behavior: if I use a pipe for 'or' in a regular expression, I only see that bit of the match returned. E.g.:

>>> myfile = open('testfile.txt','r').read()
>>> print re.findall('size=50;',myfile)
['size=50;', 'size=50;', 'size=50;', 'size=50;']
>>> print re.findall('size=51;',myfile)
['size=51;', 'size=51;', 'size=51;']
>>> print re.findall('size=(50|51);',myfile)
['51', '51', '51', '50', '50', '50', '50']
>>> print re.findall(r'size=(50|51);',myfile)
['51', '51', '51', '50', '50', '50', '50']

The "size=" part of the match is gone. (Yet it is certainly used in the search, otherwise there would be more results). What am I doing wrong?

Answer 1

The problem you have is that if the regex that re.findall tries to match captures groups (i.e. the portions of the regex that are enclosed in parentheses), then it is the groups that are returned, rather than the matched string.

One way to solve this issue is to use non-capturing groups (prefixed with ?:).

>>> import re
>>> s = 'size=50;size=51;'
>>> re.findall('size=(?:50|51);', s)
['size=50;', 'size=51;']

If the regex that re.findall tries to match does not capture anything, it returns the whole of the matched string.

Although using character classes might be the simplest option in this particular case, non-capturing groups provide a more general solution.