In this article, we will learn about VERBOSE flag of the re package and how to use it.
re.VERBOSE : This flag allows you to write regular expressions that look nicer and are more readable by allowing you to visually separate logical sections of the pattern and add comments.
Whitespace within the pattern is ignored, except when in a character class, or when preceded by an unescaped backslash, or within tokens like *?, (?: or (?P. When a line contains a # that is not in a character class and is not preceded by an unescaped backslash, all characters from the leftmost such # through the end of the line are ignored.
# Without Using VERBOSEregex_email = re.compile(r'^([a-z0-9_\.-]+)@([0-9a-z\.-]+)\.([a-z\.]{2, 6})$', re.IGNORECASE) # Using VERBOSEregex_email = re.compile(r""" ^([a-z0-9_\.-]+) # local Part @ # single @ sign ([0-9a-z\.-]+) # Domain name \. # single Dot . ([a-z]{2,6})$ # Top level Domain """,re.VERBOSE | re.IGNORECASE) |
It’s passed as an argument to re.compile() i.e re.compile(Regular Expression, re.VERBOSE). re.compile() returns a RegexObject which is then matched with the given string.
Let’s consider an example where the user is asked to enter their Email ID and we have to validate it using RegEx. The format of an email is as follow:
- Personal details/local part like john123
- Single @
- Domain Name like gmail/yahoo etc
- Single Dot(.)
- Top Level Domain like .com/.org/.net
Examples:
Input : expectopatronum@gmail.com Output : Valid Input : avadakedavra@yahoo.com@ Output : Invalid This is invalid because there is @ after the top level domain name.
Below is the Python implementation –
# Python3 program to show the Implementation of VERBOSE in RegEXimport re def validate_email(email): # RegexObject = re.compile( Regular expression, flag ) # Compiles a regular expression pattern into # a regular expression object regex_email=re.compile(r""" ^([a-z0-9_\.-]+) # local Part @ # single @ sign ([0-9a-z\.-]+) # Domain name \. # single Dot . ([a-z]{2,6})$ # Top level Domain """,re.VERBOSE | re.IGNORECASE) # RegexObject is matched with the desired # string using fullmatch function # In case a match is found, search() # returns a MatchObject Instance res=regex_email.fullmatch(email) #If match is found, the string is valid if res: print("{} is Valid. Details are as follow:".format(email)) #prints first part/personal detail of Email Id print("Local:{}".format(res.group(1))) #prints Domain Name of Email Id print("Domain:{}".format(res.group(2))) #prints Top Level Domain Name of Email Id print("Top Level domain:{}".format(res.group(3))) print() else: #If match is not found,string is invalid print("{} is Invalid".format(email)) # Driver Codevalidate_email("expectopatronum@gmail.com")validate_email("avadakedavra@yahoo.com@")validate_email("Crucio@.com") |
Output:
expectopatronum@gmail.com is Valid. Details are as follow: Local:expectopatronum Domain:gmail Top Level domain:com avadakedavra@yahoo.com@ is Invalid Crucio@.com is Invalid
