"Python Cookbook" "String and Text" 7. Define a regular expression that implements the shortest match

Problem: Use regular expressions to match text patterns to identify the longest possible match to find the shortest possible match

Workaround: Add after the * operator in the matching pattern. Modifier

ImportRe#Sample TextText ='computer says "No." Phone says "Yes."'#(a) Regex that finds quoted Strings-longest matchStr_pat = Re.compile (r'\"(.*)\"')Print(Str_pat.findall (text))#(b) Regex that finds quoted Strings-shortest matchStr_pat = Re.compile (r'\"(.*?) \"')Print(Str_pat.findall (text))

>>> ================================ RESTART ================================>>> ['  No. " Phone says "Yes. ' ['No.'yes. ' ]

(a) The example is incorrectly matched into 2 quoted strings

Add: This section refers to an issue that you will encounter when writing a regular expression that contains a period (.) character.

In pattern matching, a period can match any character except a newline character.

"Python Cookbook" "String and Text" 7. Define a regular expression that implements the shortest match