Python：查找浮点数字符串中重复数字序列的长度

Question

I am trying to write a function which takes in a list of floats and determines whether or not there is a repeating sequence of number within that list. If there is a repeating sequence then it counts the numbers in that sequence.

These examples are what I want my function to do

Example 1:

function = '1.0 8.0 4.0 2.0 1.0 8.0 4.0 2.0 1.0 8.0 4.0 2.0 1.0 8.0'
result = find_repeating_sequence(function)
# repeating sequence = 1.0, 8.0, 4.0, 2.0
# so result should equal 4 in this case

Example 2:

function = '1.0 8.0 4.0 1.0 2.0 1.0 8.0 4.0 1.0 2.0 1.0 8.0'
result = find_repeating_sequence(function)
# repeating sequence = 1.0, 8.0, 4.0, 1.0, 2.0
# so result should equal 5 in this case

Example 3:

function = '1.0 8.0 4.0 2.0 1.0 7.0 6.0 3.0 2.0 5.0 9.0'
result = find_repeating_sequence(function)
# repeating sequence doesn't exist
# so result should equal None in this case

Example 4:

function = '1.0 11.0 1.0 11.0 1.0 11.0 1.0 11.0 1.0 11.0 1.0 11.0 1.0 11.0 1.0 11.0'
result = find_repeating_sequence(function)
# repeating sequence = 1.0, 11.0
# so result should equal 2 in this case

So far what I have got is:

def find_repeating_sequence(function):
        regex = re.compile(r'(.+ .+)( \1)+')
        match = regex.search(function)
        result = match

       if result == None:
            print "There was no repeating sequence found!"
        else:
            print "Repeating sequence found!"
            print match.group(1)
            result = match.group(1)

       return result

This works for all examples in the sense that match.group(1) gives the repeating sequence. However for some reason len(match.group(1)) does not return the correct number.

Like for Example 1:

print match.group(1) gives 1.0 8.0 4.0 2.0

But print len(match.group(1)) gives 15

Also it does not return the correct value for Example 4: print match.group(1) gives 1.0 11.0 1.0 11.0 1.0 11.0 1.0 11.0

And print len(match.group(1)) gives 35

What am I doing wrong?

UPDATE:

Thanks to one of the answers below I have solved the print len(match.group(1)) issue by using len(match.group(1).split())

However for some reason if function = 1.0 2.0 4.0 8.0 1.0 2.0 4.0 8.0 1.0 2.0 4.0 8.0 1.0 2.0 4.0 8.0 print match.group(1) gives 1.0 2.0 4.0 8.0 1.0 2.0 4.0 8.0 and not 1.0 2.0 4.0 8.0

Answer 1

match.group() returns a string and in this case len() returns the number of characters in the string.

you could split your string by space, and then count the number of elements

Answer to the update: your expression is greedy, it tries to find the longest match. Try (.+? .+?)( \\1)+? . The questionmark after a qualifier makes the regex lazy:

https://regex101.com/r/1w7nxD/1