import re def name_of_email(addr): b = re.compile(r'^([a-z]+)@.*$') s = b.match(addr) if s: return s.groups()[0] a = re.compile(r'^?\s.+$') s = a.match(addr).groups() return s[0] if __name__ == '__main__': assert name_of_email(' tom@voyager.org') == 'Tom Paris' assert name_of_email('tom@voyager.org') == 'tom' print('ok')