Add re.fullmatch() function and regex.fullmatch() method, which anchor the

pattern at both ends of the string to match.

Patch by Matthew Barnett.
Closes #16203.

Doc/library/re.rst

@@ -584,6 +584,16 @@ form.
    instead (see also :ref:`search-vs-match`).
 
 
+.. function:: fullmatch(pattern, string, flags=0)
+
+   If the whole *string* matches the regular expression *pattern*, return a
+   corresponding :ref:`match object <match-objects>`.  Return ``None`` if the
+   string does not match the pattern; note that this is different from a
+   zero-length match.
+
+   .. versionadded:: 3.4
+
+
 .. function:: split(pattern, string, maxsplit=0, flags=0)
 
    Split *string* by the occurrences of *pattern*.  If capturing parentheses are
@@ -778,6 +788,24 @@ attributes:
    :meth:`~regex.search` instead (see also :ref:`search-vs-match`).
 
 
+.. method:: regex.fullmatch(string[, pos[, endpos]])
+
+   If the whole *string* matches this regular expression, return a corresponding
+   :ref:`match object <match-objects>`.  Return ``None`` if the string does not
+   match the pattern; note that this is different from a zero-length match.
+
+   The optional *pos* and *endpos* parameters have the same meaning as for the
+   :meth:`~regex.search` method.
+
+   >>> pattern = re.compile("o[gh]")
+   >>> pattern.fullmatch("dog")      # No match as "o" is not at the start of "dog".
+   >>> pattern.fullmatch("ogre")     # No match as not the full string matches.
+   >>> pattern.fullmatch("doggie", 1, 3)   # Matches within given limits.
+   <_sre.SRE_Match object at ...>
+
+   .. versionadded:: 3.4
+
+
 .. method:: regex.split(string, maxsplit=0)
 
    Identical to the :func:`split` function, using the compiled pattern.

Lib/re.py

@@ -85,16 +85,17 @@ resulting RE will match the second character.
     \\       Matches a literal backslash.
 
 This module exports the following functions:
-    match    Match a regular expression pattern to the beginning of a string.
-    search   Search a string for the presence of a pattern.
-    sub      Substitute occurrences of a pattern found in a string.
-    subn     Same as sub, but also return the number of substitutions made.
-    split    Split a string by the occurrences of a pattern.
-    findall  Find all occurrences of a pattern in a string.
-    finditer Return an iterator yielding a match object for each match.
-    compile  Compile a pattern into a RegexObject.
-    purge    Clear the regular expression cache.
-    escape   Backslash all non-alphanumerics in a string.
+    match     Match a regular expression pattern to the beginning of a string.
+    fullmatch Match a regular expression pattern to all of a string.
+    search    Search a string for the presence of a pattern.
+    sub       Substitute occurrences of a pattern found in a string.
+    subn      Same as sub, but also return the number of substitutions made.
+    split     Split a string by the occurrences of a pattern.
+    findall   Find all occurrences of a pattern in a string.
+    finditer  Return an iterator yielding a match object for each match.
+    compile   Compile a pattern into a RegexObject.
+    purge     Clear the regular expression cache.
+    escape    Backslash all non-alphanumerics in a string.
 
 Some of the functions in this module takes flags as optional parameters:
     A  ASCII       For string patterns, make \w, \W, \b, \B, \d, \D
@@ -123,7 +124,7 @@ import sre_compile
 import sre_parse
 
 # public symbols
-__all__ = [ "match", "search", "sub", "subn", "split", "findall",
+__all__ = [ "match", "fullmatch", "search", "sub", "subn", "split", "findall",
     "compile", "purge", "template", "escape", "A", "I", "L", "M", "S", "X",
     "U", "ASCII", "IGNORECASE", "LOCALE", "MULTILINE", "DOTALL", "VERBOSE",
     "UNICODE", "error" ]
@@ -154,6 +155,11 @@ def match(pattern, string, flags=0):
     a match object, or None if no match was found."""
     return _compile(pattern, flags).match(string)
 
+def fullmatch(pattern, string, flags=0):
+    """Try to apply the pattern to all of the string, returning
+    a match object, or None if no match was found."""
+    return _compile(pattern, flags).fullmatch(string)
+
 def search(pattern, string, flags=0):
     """Scan through string looking for a match to the pattern, returning
     a match object, or None if no match was found."""

Lib/test/test_re.py

@@ -1061,6 +1061,30 @@ class ReTests(unittest.TestCase):
                 self.assertEqual(m.group(1), "")
                 self.assertEqual(m.group(2), "y")
 
+    def test_fullmatch(self):
+        # Issue 16203: Proposal: add re.fullmatch() method.
+        self.assertEqual(re.fullmatch(r"a", "a").span(), (0, 1))
+        self.assertEqual(re.fullmatch(r"a|ab", "ab").span(), (0, 2))
+        self.assertEqual(re.fullmatch(r".*?$", "abc").span(), (0, 3))
+        self.assertEqual(re.fullmatch(r".*?", "abc").span(), (0, 3))
+        self.assertEqual(re.fullmatch(r"a.*?b", "ab").span(), (0, 2))
+        self.assertEqual(re.fullmatch(r"a.*?b", "abb").span(), (0, 3))
+        self.assertEqual(re.fullmatch(r"a.*?b", "axxb").span(), (0, 4))
+        self.assertEqual(re.fullmatch(r"abc$", "abc\n"), None)
+        self.assertEqual(re.fullmatch(r"abc\Z", "abc\n"), None)
+        self.assertEqual(re.fullmatch(r"(?m)abc$", "abc\n"), None)
+        self.assertEqual(re.fullmatch(r"ab(?=c)cd", "abcd").span(), (0, 4))
+        self.assertEqual(re.fullmatch(r"ab(?<=b)cd", "abcd").span(), (0, 4))
+        self.assertEqual(re.fullmatch(r"(?=a|ab)ab", "ab").span(), (0, 2))
+
+        self.assertEqual(
+            re.compile(r"bc").fullmatch("abcd", pos=1, endpos=3).span(), (1, 3))
+        self.assertEqual(
+            re.compile(r".*?$").fullmatch("abcd", pos=1, endpos=3).span(), (1, 3))
+        self.assertEqual(
+            re.compile(r".*?").fullmatch("abcd", pos=1, endpos=3).span(), (1, 3))
+
+
 def run_re_tests():
     from test.re_tests import tests, SUCCEED, FAIL, SYNTAX_ERROR
     if verbose:

Modules/sre.h

@@ -89,6 +89,7 @@ typedef struct {
     SRE_REPEAT *repeat;
     /* hooks */
     SRE_TOLOWER_HOOK lower;
+    int match_all;
 } SRE_STATE;
 
 typedef struct {