RegEx XVIII: Fixed Quantifiers

Published by Alessandro Manicone in

Fixed quantifiers indicate numbers of characters or expressions to match.

x{n} matches exactly "n" occurrences of the preceding item "x":

re.findall("a{2}", "candy") ➞ []
re.findall("a{2}", "caandy") ➞ ["aa"]

x{n,} matches at least "n" occurrences of the preceding item "x":

re.findall("a{2,}", "candy") ➞ []
re.findall("a{2,}", "caandy") ➞ ["aa"]
re.findall("a{2,}", "caaaaandy") ➞ ["aaaaa"]

x{n,m} matches at least "n" and at most "m" occurrences of the preceding item "x":

re.findall("a{1,3}", "cndy") ➞ []
re.findall("a{1,3}", "candy") ➞ ["a"]
re.findall("a{1,3}", "caandy") ➞ ["aa"]
re.findall("a{1,3}", "caaaaandy") ➞ ["aaa"]

Write the regular expression to find the ellipsis (3 or more dots in a row) in a string. You must use one of the 3 fixed quantifiers above in your expression.

Example

txt = "Hello!... Wait. How goes?..... GoodBye!.."
pattern = "yourregularexpressionhere"
re.findall(pattern, txt) ➞ ["...", "....."]

Notes

  • You don't need to write a function, just the pattern.
  • Do not remove import re from the code.
  • Find more info on RegEx and quantifiers in Resources.
  • You can find all the challenges of this series in my Basic RegEx collection.
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