Type of compiled regex object in python

Question

What is the type of the compiled regular expression in python?

In particular, I want to evaluate

isinstance(re.compile(\'\'), ???)

Answer 1

As an illustration of polymorphism, an alternate solution is to create wrapper classes which implement a common method.

class Stringish (str):
    def matches (self, input):
        return self == input

class Regexish (re):
    def matches (self, input):
        return self.match(input)

Now your code can iterate over a list of alloweds containing objects instantiating either of these two classes completely transparently:

for allowed in alloweds:
    if allowed.matches(input):
        ignored = False
        break

Notice also how some code duplication goes away (though your original code could have been refactored to fix that separately).