Extract string from Python re

Question

How do you extract the original 'raw' string from a Python regex. For example, I have the following simple regex:

import re
test_line_re = re.compile(r'Test \d+ Result: \s+')

I want to be able to print: Test \d+ Result \s+

Answer 1

You can use the pattern attribute:

print test_line_re.pattern

You should always search through the documentation when you have questions like this.

Answer 2

>>> re.compile(r'Test \d+ Result: \s+').pattern
'Test \\d+ Result: \\s+'

Answer 3

Is there any reason you can't store the string before compiling the expression? i.e.

import re
pattern = r'Test \d+ Result: \s+'
test_line_re = re.compile(pattern)
print pattern

Answer 4

re.compile is not very useful. It usually best just to keep the pattern the whole time anyhow. You can get the pattern from the pattern attribute, but if possible just don't ever manually compile it.