Python Cannot Parse Date with Regex

Question

I have a program in which the user can enter a string and have the date in the string. I am using RegEx to match \d+\/\d+\/\d+ to extract the date from the string but for some reason in my test case, only the last entry is able to work

import datetime
import re
dateList = []
dates = ["Foo (8/15/15) Bar", "(8/15/15)", "8/15/15"]
reg = re.compile('(\d+\/\d+\/\d+)')
for date in dates:
    matching = reg.match(date)
    if matching is not None:
        print date, matching.group(1)
    else:
        print date, "is not valid date"

returns

Foo (8/15/15) Bar is not valid date
(8/15/15) is not valid date
8/15/15 8/15/15

Is there something wrong with my RegEx? I tested it with RegEx101.com and it seemed to work fine

unless you want to learn regexp, I suggest you use dateutil's parser — miraculixx
– miraculixx, Commented Aug 13, 2015 at 20:14

hiro protagonist · Accepted Answer · 2015-08-13 20:26:33Z

1

if you are looking for a partial match of the regex, use search:

import datetime
import re
dateList = []
dates = ["Foo (8/15/15) Bar", "(8/15/15)", "8/15/15"]
reg = re.compile('([0-9]+/[0-9]+/[0-9]+)')
for date in dates:
    matching = reg.search(date)  # <- .search instead of .match
    if matching is not None:
        print( date, matching.group(1) )
    else:
        print( date, "is not valid date" )

edited Aug 13, 2015 at 20:26

answered Aug 13, 2015 at 20:16

hiro protagonist

47.4k17 gold badges93 silver badges119 bronze badges

Sign up to request clarification or add additional context in comments.

1 Comment

zopieux Over a year ago

Please note \d is not an alias for [0-9] in Unicode mode, which is the default. See my answer for more context.

zopieux · Accepted Answer · 2015-08-13 20:17:55Z

1

You are looking for search(), not match().

date_re = re.compile('([0-9]{2})/([0-9]{2})/([0-9]{2})')
e = date_re.match('foo 01/02/13')
# e is None
e = date_re.search('foo 01/02/13')
# e.groups() == ('01', '02', '13')

Do not use \d where you expect the ASCII 0-9 digits because there are many strange things matched by the Unicode version of \d.

answered Aug 13, 2015 at 20:17

zopieux

2,9002 gold badges27 silver badges32 bronze badges

Collectives™ on Stack Overflow

Python Cannot Parse Date with Regex

2 Answers 2

1 Comment

Comments

Your Answer

Hot Network Questions

Collectives™ on Stack Overflow

2 Answers 2

1 Comment

Comments

Your Answer

Sign up or log in

Post as a guest

Related