datefinder module doesn't find dates when there is ':' before date.
There is a similar question here: Datefinder Module Stranger behavior on particular string
string = "Assessment Date 17-May-2017 at 13:31"
list(datefinder.find_dates(string.lower()))
#Returns [datetime.datetime(2017, 5, 17, 13, 31)]
However when I add : like this "Assessment Date:", it fails
string = "Assessment Date 17-May-2017 at 13:31"
list(datefinder.find_dates(string.lower()))
#returns []
These are the delimiters patterns in datefinder: DELIMITERS_PATTERN = r"[/:-\,\s_+@]+"
So 'Date:' is causing an issue when you try to parse the string.
You could preclean the string using a regular expression.
import re as regex
import datefinder
def preclean_input_text(text):
cleaned_text = regex.sub(r'[a-z]:\s', ' ', text, flags=re.IGNORECASE)
return cleaned_text
def parse_date_information(text):
date_info = list(datefinder.find_dates(text.lower()))
return date_info
string = "Assessment Date: 17-May-2017 at 13:31"
cleaned_string = preclean_input_text(string)
print(parse_date_information(cleaned_string))
# output
[datetime.datetime(2017, 5, 17, 13, 31)]
