Is it worth using Python's re.compile?

Question

Is there any benefit in using compile for regular expressions in Python?

h = re.compile(\'hello\')
h.match(\'hello world\')

vs

Answer 1

My understanding is that those two examples are effectively equivalent. The only difference is that in the first, you can reuse the compiled regular expression elsewhere without causing it to be compiled again.

Here's a reference for you: http://diveintopython3.ep.io/refactoring.html

Calling the compiled pattern object's search function with the string 'M' accomplishes the same thing as calling re.search with both the regular expression and the string 'M'. Only much, much faster. (In fact, the re.search function simply compiles the regular expression and calls the resulting pattern object's search method for you.)