Python regex group matches shows extra empty string

user_11584728 0
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I want to get the date followed by DATE FILLED and REFILL from my text. Ordering of DATE FILLED or REFILL is not fixed. And date pattern can be:

6/23/20
6-23-20

My Python scripts is:

expiration_date_regex = re.compile(r"(USE\s+BY.*(?P<expiration>\d{1,2}/\d{1,2}/\d{2,4}))|(DATE\s+FILLED.*(?P<date_filled>\d{1,2}/\d{1,2}/\d{2,4}))", re.M)
find_matches(expiration_date_regex, text)

def find_matches(regex, text):
    matches = regex.findall(text)
    for match in matches:
        print(match)

My text is:

CVS pharmacy
713-217 HsonSt
OTY: 90
REFILL 0 Refills
PRSCBN. A Beil
DATE FILLED 6/23/20
USE BY. 6/23/21
RPH Bill Liu
MFR AUROBINDO PHARM
ST DEA BC2236645
This is a WHITE
REDTME

But I'm getting output something like this, output is almost reasonable but I don't understand what do those first two empty strings means in the first tuple? same goes for last two string of the second tuple. It looks something like bitmask:

('', '', 'DATE FILLED 6/23/20', '6/23/20')
('USE BY. 6/23/21', '6/23/21', '', '')
python-re python regex
1 Answers

Converting my comment to answer so that solution is easy to find for future visitors.

You may use this regex:

(?i)(USE\s+BY|DATE\s+FILL(?:ED)?).*(?P<date>\d{1,2}[-/]\d{1,2}[-/]\d{2,4})

RegEx Demo

RegEx Details:

  • (?i): Enable ignore case mode
  • (USE\s+BY|DATE\s+FILL(?:ED)?): Match USE BY or DATE FILLED or DATE FILL
  • .*: Match 0 or more of any characters
  • (?P<date>\d{1,2}[-/]\d{1,2}[-/]\d{2,4}): Match a date string using / or - as delimiter
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