Why should \D mean 1 or more non-digits?

Question

Why should \D mean 1 or more non-digits?
I expected \D to mean just a SINGLE non-digit instead.

Since \d means a digit, doesn't it make sense that its inverse, namely /D, means A non-digit? NOT multiple of them, just a SINGLE non-digit.

Answer 1

1 or more , it depend on follow by +?*
if + it means at least 1 or more
if * it means at least 0 or more
if ? it means don't care , can have one or more or none of it

Answer 2

See this example.

import re

pattern = r"(\D+\d)"

match = re.match(pattern, "Hi 999!")
if match:
print("Match 1")

match = re.match(pattern, "1, 23, 456!")
if match:
print("Match 2")

match = re.match(pattern, " ! $?")
if match:
print("Match 3")

You can try rubning it. The output is Match1. This means \D matches non-digits while \d matches digits.

Answer 3

\d means it is a digit [0-9] and \D is no digit [^0-9]

Answer 4

You are correct. "\D" matches exactly one non-digit character, just as "\d" matches exactly one digit. As others have pointed out, if you want to match one _or_more_ non-digit characters, you have to add a "+" on the end of it, as in "\D+".

Answer 5

\d matches digits i.e. 1,2,... even 1000000 and so on that's why it's inverse \D matches more than 1 non digits

Answer 6

beauty1234, correction: ? means 0 or 1 times, but not more.