Is there a simple way to switch between using and ignoring metacharacters in Python regular expressions?

Question

Is there a way of toggling the compilation or use of metacharacters when compiling regexes? The current code looks like this:

Current code:

import re

the_value  = '192.168.1.1'
the_regex  = re.compile(the_value)

my_collection = ['192a168b1c1', '192.168.1.1']

my_collection.find_matching(the_regex)

result = ['192a168b1c1', '192.168.1.1']

The ideal solution would look like:

import re

the_value  = '192.168.1.1'
the_regex  = re.compile(the_value, use_metacharacters=False)

my_collection = ['192a168b1c1', '192.168.1.1']

my_collection.find_matching(the_regex)

result = ['192.168.1.1']

The ideal solution would let the re library handle the disabling of metacharacters, to avoid having to get involved in the process as much as possible.

Millerite

if you're looking for a static string, why do you want to use the re module? Why not just compare strings for equality, or search for a substring? – Debus

Answer 1

Nope. However:

the_regex  = re.compile(re.escape(the_value))

Enunciation

Answer 2

Use the re.escape() function for this.

Return string with all non-alphanumerics backslashed; this is useful if you want to match an arbitrary literal string that may have regular expression metacharacters in it.

>>> import re
>>> re.escape('192.168.1.1')
'192\\.168\\.1\\.1'

Habitancy

Thanks! I'm accepting Ignacio's answer because it's technically the full solution. However, I appreciate your answer and your help :). – Millerite

Whereas I think this is the better answer as it links to and quotes the documentation… – Schistosomiasis