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Regular Expression re.compile() Disabled???

Hello,

I'm trying to use re.compile() but got error message: "Cannot import attribute within module compile. ".
My code is pretty simple like the following, which works in Spyder:

Does anyone know why?
Thanks. -Wei

import re
pattern=re.compile('ab*')
string='abcd'
check=pattern.match(string)
if check:
print 'Yes'
else:
print 'No'

3 responses

Nobody uses regular expression?

Hi Wei,

It looks like re.compile isn't whitelisted on the platform. However, you can use regular expressions in other ways. What are you trying to use it for? Yesterday, Fawce posted an example algorithm that trades companies that include the substring 'cat'. If you share what you are trying to do, maybe I can point you to another tool.

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Thanks much for your reply Jamie.

I believe using regular expression can greatly simplify the recognition of some time series patterns (e.g. using character to represent types of price actions). re.compile will be very useful in this.
Since re is allowed in the platform, could Quantopian consider adding re.compile to the platform?

Thanks.
Wei