Is there a better way to find if string contains digits? [duplicate]

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This is one of those places where a regular expression is just the thing:

_digits = re.compile('\d')
def contains_digits(d):
    return bool(_digits.search(d))

Little demo:

>>> _digits = re.compile('\d')
>>> def contains_digits(d):
...     return bool(_digits.search(d))
... 
>>> contains_digits('0798237 sh 523-123-asdjlh')
True
>>> contains_digits('sh asdjlh')
False

You could use the any method with .isdigit() as described in @Wallacolloo’s answer, but that’s slower than the simple regular expression:

>>> import timeit
>>> timeit.timeit("contains_digits('0798237 sh 523-123-asdjlh')", 'from __main__ import contains_digits')
0.77181887626647949
>>> timeit.timeit("contains_digits_any('0798237 sh 523-123-asdjlh')", 'from __main__ import contains_digits_any')
1.7796030044555664

The if method is on par with the regular expression:

>>> timeit.timeit("contains_digits_if('0798237 sh 523-123-asdjlh')", 'from __main__ import contains_digits_if')
0.87261390686035156

But things get worse if the digits appear late in the text:

>>> timeit.timeit("contains_digits('asdjlhtaheoahueoaea 11 thou')", 'from __main__ import contains_digits')
1.202538013458252
>>> timeit.timeit("contains_digits_any('asdjlhtaheoahueoaea 11 thou')", 'from __main__ import contains_digits_any')
5.0348429679870605
>>> timeit.timeit("contains_digits_if('asdjlhtaheoahueoaea 11 thou')", 'from __main__ import contains_digits_if')
3.707183837890625

Timings tested on python 2.6 on Mac OS X 10.7.

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