Why the answer to this question is 3?

Question

What would be the result of len(match.groups()) of a match of (a)(b(?:c)(d)(?:e)) ?
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I tried it with this code :

import re
pattern = r"(a)(b(?:c)(d)(?:e))"
match = re.match(pattern, "abcdef")
if match:
print(len(match.groups()))
print(match.groups())

Answer 1

5

Answer 2

Correct Answer:

Any letter out of "abc", then any out of "def"

Answer 3

The groups with ?: are non-matching groups. They won't show up in the match list. They are useful for grouping pieces of your re together which you don't necessarily want to capture in the match.

Answer 4

In the string, you can see 5 groups, but 2 of these are "Non-capturing" groups and they are not included in the match.groups() tuple. This is why the length of match.groups() is equal to 5-2=3

Answer 5

5

Answer 6

5

Answer 7

5 group

Answer 8

5

Answer 9

3