Extracting dates with format '%D %d, %Y' from a string

Question

I was trying to extract the date from a string with the format '%D %d, %Y' (e.g. 'November 1, 1960' from 'November 1, 1960 ( 1960-11-01 )').

Now I have:

import re
from datetime import datetime

word_months = r'January|February|March|April|May|June|July|August|September|October|November|December'
word_day_year = r'\d+,\s\d{4}'
word_date = rf'{word_months}({word_day_year})'
s = 'November 1, 1960 ( 1960-11-01 )'
re.search(word_date, s).group()

I have the output be 'November' instead of 'November 1, 1960'. What have I done wrong?

Answer 1

Group the months, and account for the space after the month / before the day.

Consider limiting the day to two digits, and grouping both the day and the year for further validation.

import re

word_months = r'(January|February|March|April|May|June|July|August|September|October|November|December)'
word_day_year = r'\s(\d{1,2}),\s(\d{4})'
word_date = rf'{word_months}{word_day_year}'

m = re.search(word_date, 'November 1, 1960 ( 1960-11-01 )')

print(f'Primary match: <{m.group()}>')
print('Sub matches:')

for g in m.groups():
    print(f'<{g}>')

Primary match: <November 1, 1960>
Sub matches:
<November>
<1>
<1960>

Also consider match, or otherwise anchor the expression (if appropriate).