The documentation for re.compile says "Compile a regular expression pattern into a regular expression object, which can be used for matching using its match() and search() methods, described below." which implies that match() and search() are the only methods for it while there are a few more. Maybe this sentence should be worded more generic or at least complete the list.

What do you propose for the doc of re.compile ?

The proposal is in the startpost.

@Sworddragon: Your post says that it should be more generic or complete the list, but it doesn't make a suggestion as to what it should _actually_ say.

Example: "Compile a regular expression pattern into a regular expression object, which can be used for matching and replacing using the methods described below."

FWIW, I think the sentence is fine as-is.  The "which can be used" part doesn't purport to be all inclusive.   I rather like that at match() and search() are mentioned -- this is better than more vague reference to "the methods described below" -- and this is better than listing out every method.

I vote for leaving this alone.

IMHO, the sentence is not bad as it is. An easy (?) yet efficient way to make it much better from the a user perspective would be to make the "regular expression object" text a link leading to https://docs.python.org/3/library/re.html#regular-expression-objects .

YAHO (yet another humble opinion), I support improving the current re.compile documentation by adding a link to the regular expression object documentation. Great way to point a user to the complete list of methods and attributes while keeping match() and search() listed explicitly.

hello team,

I am novice developer. Can I take it up as my first bug.

@swapnil agarwal I think you can go for it.

Added the link to the regular expression objects.

PR 3211 - LGTM, but is not CLA signed.

Elena, a couple of notes on your patch. Using :ref:`regular expression object <re-objects>` to link to the section of the documentation is preferred, as it does not rely on a consistent URL. Also, be mindful of line lengths, feel free to break lines to avoid this. If you would like to submit a PR on Github for these changes, it can more easily be merged in. (Check https://docs.python.org/devguide/pullrequest.html for more info).

Emily: I've signed the CLA, just waiting for it to be checked.

New changeset ed94a8b2851914bcda3a77b28b25517b8baa91e6 by Mariatta (Henk-Jaap Wagenaar) in branch 'master':
bpo-26656: Improve re.compile documentation (GH-3211)
https://github.com/python/cpython/commit/ed94a8b2851914bcda3a77b28b25517b8baa91e6

New changeset 83e5c888fff2bf3663952b2bfd3a3ee6c20386ef by Mariatta in branch '3.6':
[3.6] bpo-26656: Improve re.compile documentation (GH-3211) (GH-3225)
https://github.com/python/cpython/commit/83e5c888fff2bf3663952b2bfd3a3ee6c20386ef

There are two PRs for this issue. 
I accepted the earlier one, and it's been backported to 3.6.

Thanks everyone.