Python: startswith any alpha character Python: startswith any alpha character python python

Python: startswith any alpha character


If you want to match non-ASCII letters as well, you can use str.isalpha:

if line and line[0].isalpha():


You can pass a tuple to startswiths() (in Python 2.5+) to match any of its elements:

import stringALPHA = string.ascii_lettersif line.startswith(tuple(ALPHA)):    pass

Of course, for this simple case, a regex test or the in operator would be more readable.


An easy solution would be to use the python regex module:

import reif re.match("^[a-zA-Z]+.*", line):   Do Something