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Python Regular Expressions in Python Introduction to Regular Expressions Name Groups

Can't select the first and last name in different groups for the code challenge.

I have been stuck on this for hours, regex is very frustrating.

names.py
import re

string = 'Perotto, Pier Giorgio'
names = re.match('''
    (?P<last_name>[-\w]+,\s)  # last name
    (?P<first_name>[-\w]+\s[-\w]+)  # first name
    ''', string, re.M|re.X)

This is the best that I've got so far:

name = re.match('''
    (?P<last_name>[-\w]+,\s)  # last name
    (?P<first_name>[-\w]+\s[-\w]+)  # first name
    ''', string, re.M|re.X)

Which gave me:

{'last_name': 'Perotto, ', 'first_name': 'Pier Giorgio'}

1 Answer

Steven Parker
Steven Parker
231,268 Points

You are sooooo close. You just need to exclude the separator from the last name group (by moving the closing parenthesis):

names = re.match('''
    (?P<last_name>[-\w]+),\s  # last name
    (?P<first_name>[-\w]+\s[-\w]+)  # first name
    ''', string, re.M|re.X)

It's always the simplest things that get me! Thanks!