Can't make regex work with Python -

i need extract date in format of: dd month yyyy (20 august 2013). tried following regex:

\d{2} (january|february|march|april|may|june|july|august|september|october|november|december) \d{4}

it works regex testers (chcked several text - monday, 19 august 2013), seems python doesn't understand it. output is:

>>>  ['august'] >>>

can please understand me why happening ?

thank !

did use re.findall? default, if there's @ least 1 capture group in pattern, re.findall return captured parts of expression.

you can avoid removing every capture group, causing re.findall return entire match:

\d{2} (?:january|february|...|december) \d{4}

or making single big capture group:

(\d{2} (?:january|february|...|december) \d{4})

or, possibly more conveniently, making every component capture group:

(\d{2}) (january|february|...|december) (\d{4})

this latter form more useful if need process individual day/month/year components.

Sher