# 4.4 `regsub` -- String operations using regular expressions

This module defines a number of functions useful for working with regular expressions (see built-in module `regex`).

Warning: these functions are not thread-safe.

Obsolescence note: This module is obsolete as of Python version 1.5; it is still being maintained because much existing code still uses it. All new code in need of regular expressions should use the new `re` module, which supports the more powerful and regular Perl-style regular expressions. Existing code should be converted. The standard library module `reconvert` helps in converting `regex` style regular expressions to `re` style regular expressions. (For more conversion help, see Andrew Kuchling's ``regex-to-re HOWTO'' at http://www.python.org/doc/howto/regex-to-re/.)

`sub` (pat, repl, str)
  Replace the first occurrence of pattern pat in string str by replacement repl. If the pattern isn't found, the string is returned unchanged. The pattern may be a string or an already compiled pattern. The replacement may contain references "`\digit`" to subpatterns and escaped backslashes.

`gsub` (pat, repl, str)
  Replace all (non-overlapping) occurrences of pattern pat in string str by replacement repl. The same rules as for `sub()` apply. Empty matches for the pattern are replaced only when not adjacent to a previous match, so e.g. `gsub('', '-', 'abc')` returns `'-a-b-c-'`.

`split` (str, pat[, maxsplit])
  Split the string str in fields separated by delimiters matching the pattern pat, and return a list containing the fields. Only non-empty matches for the pattern are considered, so e.g. `split('a:b', ':*')` returns `['a', 'b']` and `split('abc', '')` returns `['abc']`. The maxsplit defaults to 0. If it is nonzero, only maxsplit number of splits occur, and the remainder of the string is returned as the final element of the list.

`splitx` (str, pat[, maxsplit])
  Split the string str in fields separated by delimiters matching the pattern pat, and return a list containing the fields as well as the separators. For example, `splitx('a:::b', ':*')` returns `['a', ':::', 'b']`. Otherwise, this function behaves the same as `split`.

`capwords` (s[, pat])
  Capitalize words separated by optional pattern pat. The default pattern uses any characters except letters, digits and underscores as word delimiters. Capitalization is done by changing the first character of each word to upper case.

`clear_cache` ()
  The regsub module maintains a cache of compiled regular expressions, keyed on the regular expression string and the syntax of the regex module at the time the expression was compiled. This function clears that cache.