did-you-know-re.py

from sre_parse import Pattern, SubPattern, parse as sre_parse
from sre_compile import compile as sre_compile
from sre_constants import BRANCH, SUBPATTERN


class Scanner(object):

    def __init__(self, tokens, flags=0):
        subpatterns = []
        pat = Pattern()
        pat.flags = flags
        self._tokens = []
        for token_name, regex in tokens:
            subpatterns.append(SubPattern(pat, [
                (SUBPATTERN, (len(subpatterns) + 1, sre_parse(regex, flags))),
            ]))
            self._tokens.append(token_name)
        pat.groups = len(subpatterns) + 1
        self._scanner = sre_compile(SubPattern(pat, [
            (BRANCH, (None, subpatterns))
        ])).scanner

    def scan(self, string, skip=False):
        scanner = self._scanner(string)
        match = skip and scanner.search or scanner.match

        i = 0
        while 1:
            m = match()
            if not m:
                break
            j = m.end()
            if i == j:
                break
            token = self._tokens[m.lastindex - 1]
            yield token, m
            i = j

        if i < len(string):
            raise EOFError(i)


def test_precise():
    scanner = Scanner([
        ('whitespace', r'\s+'),
        ('plus', r'\+'),
        ('minus', r'\-'),
        ('mult', r'\*'),
        ('div', r'/'),
        ('num', r'\d+'),
        ('paren_open', r'\('),
        ('paren_close', r'\)'),
    ])

    for token, match in scanner.scan('(1 + 2) * 3'):
        print (token, match.group())


def test_lenient():
    scanner = Scanner([
        ('bold', '\*\*'),
        ('link', '\[\[(.*?)\]\]'),
    ])

    input_text = 'Hello **World**! [[Stuff]]'
    pos = 0
    for token, match in scanner.scan(input_text, skip=True):
        skipped = input_text[pos:match.start()]
        if skipped:
            print (None, skipped)
        print (token, match.group())
        pos = match.end()

    skipped = input_text[pos:]
    if skipped:
        print (None, skipped)


if __name__ == '__main__':
    print 'Precise:'
    test_precise()
    print 'Lenient:'
    test_lenient()

output.txt

Precise:
('paren_open', '(')
('num', '1')
('whitespace', ' ')
('plus', '+')
('whitespace', ' ')
('num', '2')
('paren_close', ')')
('whitespace', ' ')
('mult', '*')
('whitespace', ' ')
('num', '3')
Lenient:
(None, 'Hello ')
('bold', '**')
(None, 'World')
('bold', '**')
(None, '! ')
('link', '[[Stuff]]')

So, you're gonna give a talk about this at PyCon so I know what the heck this means, right?

Just searched and found this post form 2005: http://code.activestate.com/recipes/457664-hidden-scanner-functionality-in-re-module/
Don't see it in the docs in 2015 😢

@tylerdave: re.Scanner unfortunately is not all that useful by itself because it creates a list and does not support scanning ahead over unlexed contents which this one can do.