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re docs never say that the ASCII flag affects \p{...} properties #157698
Description
Documentation
https://docs.python.org/dev/library/re.html#re.A
The re.ASCII entry lists \w, \W, \b, \B, \d, \D, \s and \S as the constructs it restricts, and the \p{property=value} section never mentions the flags. Six accepted property spellings are restricted by the flag as well, because Nd, digit, word, space, White_Space and WSpace are matched with the same engine categories as \d, \s and \w. The other 52 accepted spellings are unaffected.
$ cat repro.py
import re
s = '0\u0663 \xa0x'
for p in 'Nd', 'digit', 'word', 'space', 'White_Space', 'WSpace':
pat = r'\p{%s}' % p
print('%-12s %-18r %r' % (p, re.findall(pat, s), re.findall(pat, s, re.ASCII)))
$ ./python repro.py
Nd ['0', '٣'] ['0']
digit ['0', '٣'] ['0']
word ['0', '٣', 'x'] ['0', 'x']
space [' ', '\xa0'] [' ']
White_Space [' ', '\xa0'] [' ']
WSpace [' ', '\xa0'] [' ']
Expected: the \p{property=value} section says which properties the ASCII flag restricts, alongside the existing note that space follows str.isspace and xdigit matches only the ASCII hexadecimal digits.
\p{White_Space} and \p{WSpace} are also absent from the documented list of supported properties, although both are accepted.
Activity
LestlinRobins commentedon Sep 30, 2026
@aisk Could I work on this? Can you please assign this to me?
aisk commentedon Oct 1, 2026
Hi, there is already an active PR for this issue opened by the reporter, so please find another one if you want to contribute.
Also, we usually don't assign issues to people. If the solution to an issue is clear and no one is working on it, you can just open a PR.
LestlinRobins commentedon Oct 1, 2026
Ohh alright. Got it. Thanks!