This is the string I am dealing with:'5Nov20217Dec202110Jan2022'
The string could also be:
'5Nov2021 7Dec2021 10Jan2022' I would like to obtain a list like:
['5Nov2021','7Dec2021','10Jan2022'] I am currently using regex but to no avail:
re.findall('^\d{1,2}[a-zA-Z]{3}\d{4}$','5Nov20217Dec202110Jan2022') A regex solution is not a must.
Based on the variability of your input, I suggest combining re with string slicing in a while loop:
def extract_dates(d): while d: if (k:=re.findall('^\d{1,2}[a-zA-Z]{3}\d{4}', d)): if not (l:=d[len(k[0]):]) or l[0].isdigit(): yield k[0] d = l continue if (k:=re.findall('^\d{1,2}[a-zA-Z]{3}\d{2}', d)): yield k[0] d = d[len(k[0]):] else: d = d[1:] dates = ['5Nov20217Dec202110Jan2022', '5Nov217Dec2110Jan22', '5Nov21 7Dec21 10Jan22'] results = [list(extract_dates(i)) for i in dates] Output:
[['5Nov2021', '7Dec2021', '10Jan2022'], ['5Nov21', '7Dec21', '10Jan22'], ['5Nov21', '7Dec21', '10Jan22']] 
^and$