lab posts

    re.compile()
        useful when there will be multiple results or searching over iteration
        here's the pattern:
        -assign re.compile(r'REGEX') to an OBJECT
            patternobj = re.compile(r'REGEX')
        -use OBJECT.search(VAR)
            for ITERATOR in SOMEFILE.readlines():
                if patternobj.search(ITERATOR):
                    print ITERATOR
                    
    re.search()
        useful for one-off matched
        here's the pattern:
            if re.search(r'REGEX', THING TO LOOK IN): do something
    
    re.match()
        always matches from the start of the string
        here's the pattern:
            if re.match(r'REGEX', THING TO LOOK IN): do something
    
    re.compile() produces a PATTERNOBJ
    re.search() and re.match() produce a MATCHOBJ
    
    MATCHOBJ.group()
        gets the text matched by the group
        here's the pattern:
            string1 = "Find REGEXTHING in this sentence"
            matchobj = re.search(r'(REGEX)', string1) #Note parens
            id = matchobj.group(1) #Num refers to first paren group
        or:
            OBJECT = re.compile(r'REGEX')
            matchobj = OBJECT.search(THING TO LOOK IN)
            if (matchobj):
                print "the matched text was "" + matchobj.group(1) +"
    MATCHOBJ.groups()
        returns all parens groups in a tuple
        
    re.findall()
        finds all matches (returns a list?)
        here's the pattern:
            OBJECT = re.findall(r'REGEX', THING TO LOOK IN)
        as in
            text = "High: 33, low: 17"
            temp_tuples = re.findall(r'(\w+):\s+(\d+)', text)
            print temp_tuples #[('High', '33'), ('low', '17')]
    
    PATTERNOBJ.sub()
        does search and replace on text returned by re.compile
        here's the pattern:
            OBJECT = ("some", "tuple", "of", "strings")
            OBJ2 = re.compile(r'REGEX')
            for ITERATOR in OBJ2:
                ITERATOR = OBJ2.sub('THING TO SWAP IN', ITERATOR)
                print ITERATOR
        options:
            ITERATOR = OBJ2.sub('THING TO SWAP IN', ITERATOR, count=n) 
                #limits number of substitutions in a found term
            
    PATTERNOBJ.subn()
        like sub(), but returns a 2-element tuple containing the subbed text 
        and # of substitutions made
        (THING TO LOOK IN, NUM) = PATTERNOBJ.subn('THING TO SWAP IN', THING TO LOOK IN)
            

**
        
    Flags, classes, qualifiers, and metachars
        ^ = beginning of line
        $ = eol
        \A = beginning of line
        \Z = end of line
        (?i) = case insensitive; put before string
        re.I = case insensitive alt; put after THING TO LOOK IN
        re.MULTILINE = allows ^ and $ to match on start or end of lines
        re.DOTALL = splits a string allowing regex as the splitter
        \d = digit 0-9
        \w = word char: letters, nums or underscores; contains \d
        \s = any whitespace char
        \D = not in \d
        \W = not in \w
        \S = not in \s
        [abcdef] = custom wildcard class
        [^] = negates custom char class
        string.hexdigits = list of hex digits
        string.ascii_letters
        string.ascii_lowercase
        string.ascii_uppercase
        string.digits
        string.punctuation
        string.uppercase
        string.whitespace
        string.printable
        . = wildcard
        \ = toggle/escape the char's function
        * = 0 or more
        + = 1 or more
        ? = 0 or 1
        {3,10} = between 3 and 10 (inclusive)
        {3,} = 3 or more
        () = grouping
        () \1 = backreference
        \b = boundary char, finds word boundary (whitespace, punctuation)
        
**

    Working with files
    
    FILEOBJ.read()
        the idea is to open the while file into a string and then apply the regex to it
        here's the pattern:
            FILE = open('FILENAME')
            TEXT = FILE.read()
            if re.search(r'REGEX', TEXT, re.I):
                print "I found this: ", text

        

Backdrop is a freeware app for Mac that hides everything but the app you're working in.  It's different from Finder's 'Hide Others' command in that it also hides the desktop, and replaces it with a single color that you can tweak.  For scatterbrained compulsives like me, it's great.

Combine that with Megazoomer, specially tweaked for TextMate.  By default, Megazoomer expands the current window to fill the screen. I've got a tweaked version that only expands the window vertically, which makes more sense when you're writing something and want to keep the page normal.