What's the difference between groups and group in the re module?

Question

Here it is:

import re
>>>s = \'abc -j k -l m\'
>>>m = re.search(\'-\\w+ \\w+\', s)
>>>m.groups()
()
>>> m.group(0)
\'-j k\'
<         


        

Answer 1

Let me explain with a small example

>>> var2 = "Welcome 44 72"
>>> match = re.search(r'Welcome (\d+) (\d+)',var2)
>>> match.groups()
('44', '72')
>>> match.groups(0)
('44', '72')
>>> match.groups(1)
('44', '72')
>>> match.group(0)
'Welcome 44 72'
>>> match.group(1)
'44'

Explanation: groups() is a tuple type which has all the values which are pattern matched with your regular expression.

groups(0) or groups() or groups(1) .... It only prints all the values

group() or group(0) -> It will give entire string along with the value which is pattern matched with your regular expression.

group(1) will give first pattern matched value

group(2) will give second pattern matched value....