python re.sub group: number after \\number

Question

How can I replace foobar with foo123bar?

This doesn't work:

>>> re.sub(r'(foo)', r'\1123', 'foobar')
'J3bar'

This works:

>>> re.sub(r'(foo)', r'\1hi', 'foobar')
'foohibar'

I think it's a common issue when having something like \number. Can anyone give me a hint on how to handle this?

Answer 1

The answer is:

re.sub(r'(foo)', r'\g<1>123', 'foobar')

Relevant excerpt from the docs:

In addition to character escapes and backreferences as described above, \g will use the substring matched by the group named name, as defined by the (?P...) syntax. \g uses the corresponding group number; \g<2> is therefore equivalent to \2, but isn’t ambiguous in a replacement such as \g<2>0. \20 would be interpreted as a reference to group 20, not a reference to group 2 followed by the literal character '0'. The backreference \g<0> substitutes in the entire substring matched by the RE.