CODEWITHSUNDEEP
pythonpython-3.xstringdate
Erik hoeven
Erik hoeven

Reputation: 1610

Python Regular expression does not match on year month combination

I use Python 3.8.6 with regular expression to find an English month+year combination in a string. Therefor I use the following code:

import re

regMonthPatternEn = 'an(?:uary)?|eb(?:ruary)?|march?|apr(?:il)?|may|jun(?:e)?|jul(?:y)?|aug(?:usst)?|sep(?:tember)?|oct(?:ober)?|(nov|dec)(?:ember)'
regYearPattern = '.*([1-3][0-9]{3})'
text = 'january 2018'
resultMonthEn = re.match(regMonthPatternEn,text)
resultYear = re.match(regYearPattern,text.lower())
print(text)
print(workExperiencePeriodYearList)
if (resultMonthEn and resultYear):
    print('Match')

I expect that is will return "Match" in the console as output. But it returns nothing. Can you please help me to solve this problem?

Upvotes: 2

Views: 117

Answers (2)

Daniel Hepper
Daniel Hepper

Reputation: 29967

From the documentation of re.match():

If zero or more characters at the beginning of string match the regular expression pattern, return a corresponding match object. Return None if the string does not match the pattern; note that this is different from a zero-length match.

Your regex does not match the j of january (and neither the f for february).

This regex will work for your test string:

regMonthPatternEn = 'jan(?:uary)|feb(?:ruary)|march?|apr(?:il)?|may|jun(?:e)?|jul(?:y)?|aug(?:usst)?|sep(?:tember)?|oct(?:ober)?|(nov|dec)(?:ember)'

Edit: as @triplee has commented, there is an extra s in augusst, which you might want to fix.

Upvotes: 1

wasif
wasif

Reputation: 15478

Instead use datetime module:

import datetime 
text = 'january 2018'
try:
  dt = datetime.datetime.strptime(text,'%B %Y')
except ValueError:
  print("Not match")
else:
  print("Match")

Upvotes: 3

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