Quantifiers

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Quantifiers apply to the thing immediately to the left of them.

In this case it is the single character x to the left of the quantifier, but later we'll see it can apply to a character-class or to a sub-expression enclosed in parentheses as well. Whatever is located immediately to the left of the quantifier.

r'ax*a'      # aa, axa, axxa, axxxa, ...
r'ax+a'      #     axa, axxa, axxxa, ...
r'ax?a'      # aa, axa
r'ax{2,4}a'  #          axxa, axxxa, axxxxa
r'ax{3,}a'   #                axxxa, axxxxa, ...
r'ax{17}a'   #                                 axxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxa