Regular expression can’t solve - one bug in hidden test

Question

(NOT SURE WHY ALL CAPS) THE PROGRAM IS SUPPOSED TO TAKE OFF THE FIRST TWO ‘00’ AND REPLACE WITH A ‘+’ IN A PHONE NUMBER BUT THERES ONE TEST THAT WONT WORK IN THE CODE COACH AND ITS HIDDEN SO I CAN’T TELL WHAT THE PROBLEM IS

import re

phone = input()

pattern = r'00'

match = re.search(pattern,phone)

if match.start() == 0 and match.end() == 2:
new = re.sub(pattern, '+', phone)
print(new)
else:
print(phone)

Answer 1

pattern = r"^00" instead of pattern = "00"

^ means start and so that it will only change the 00 in the beginning instead of all 00.

- - - - - - - - - - - - -
INPUT:
0014800132

r"00" - - -> +148+132

r"^00" - - -> [phone]

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Another thing,

match = re.match(pattern, phone)

Use re.match instead of re.search so it will start checking the string from left to right rather than all of it at the same time.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
And another cause of error is when the number does not start with 00 the "match" variable will have 'None' value which will cause an error in if-else statement.

I hope this helps. Please update me if the problem is still not solved. Thanks and Happy Coding!

Code:
https://code.sololearn.com/cA144A149a6a
https://code.sololearn.com/c0a269A4a160