Regular expression: match start or whitespace

Question

Can a regular expression match whitespace or the start of a string?

I\'m trying to replace currency the abbreviation GBP with a £ symbol. I

Answer 1

Yes, why not?

re.sub(u'^\W*GBP...

matches the start of the string, 0 or more whitespaces, then GBP...

edit: Oh, I think you want alternation, use the |:

re.sub(u'(^|\W)GBP...