outdated : code not rejecting incorrectly formatted inputs

Question

The following two outputs which are about mixed format input like, October/8/1701 and September 8 1636,are not what they should be and i can`t make them work

import re

months = [
    "January",
    "February",
    "March",
    "April",
    "May",
    "June",
    "July",
    "August",
    "September",
    "October",
    "November",
    "December"
]

def main():
    conversion()


def conversion():
    pattern = r'[ /, ]+'
    while True:
        try:
            date = input("Date: ").strip()
            month, day, year = re.split(pattern, date)
            if month in months:
                month = months.index(month) + 1
            month = int(month)
            day = int(day)
            year = int(year)
            #print(day)
            if day > 31 or month > 12:
                pass
            else:
                print(f"{year}-{month:02}-{day:02}")
                break
        except ValueError:
            pass

main()

Answer 1

Here is some pseudo-code to get you started. It outlines the basic logic, but you have to add the code to implement that logic.

while True:
    date = input('Enter Date: ')

    if [your test to check if date has 2 '/'s]:
        ## code to get month, day, year values from slash format
        ## additional tests for valid slash input 
        ## with messages to reflect input error(s)
    elif [your test to check if date has 1 ',']:
        ## code to get month, day, year values from comma format
        ## additional tests for valid comma input 
        ## with messages to reflect input error(s)
    else:
        print(f'Invalid date format entered: {in_date}')

## Once you have correct input format and values, convert and print

Answer 2

UPDATED

The problem is that you are never checking strictly for the proper input format and rejecting the user if the input is bad. There are holes in your logic to detect a format mismatch. Namely a glaring hole if they mix the two formats

You currently use one regular expression to see that the text ROUGHLY follows the patterns, however it is not strict enough. You know the exact patterns that are allowed, and there are two of them, I'd suggest checking them both. There are other differences between the two formats besides placement of delimiters that you are completely ignoring. More specifically your regex split is not validating the formats, it's only splitting your components. It's dandy as a splitter and a nice improvement to alternatives I've seen used. But it is not validating other things.

HINT A hint is that you can do the check for validation in exactly 1 or 2 regex match checks. (1 is a bit more advanced, the 2 case is very straight forward and basically combines what kcw78 outlines in his checking logic) If you search for other answers, I have provided for this exact question you can find answers, but I'd suggest figuring it out yourself and asking questions.

I also suggest you break apart your code. conversion should just do conversion, nothing more and nothing less. If you are going to use functions use them, otherwise you might as well dump this code all in main.

Hints:

• using a while True loop generally indicates you are wrong and don't know what you are doing in this course

• conversion shouldn't be prompting the user for input; that should happen in main or in another dedicated function which obtains and validates input

• conversion should have validated input passed into it,

  • It should probably return output instead of printing it itself

• What happens if the month they enter is textual garbage, like if they enter "Enzouary"?

new

• What happens if they enter "September/08/2024"? or "12 1, 2024" Both should be rejected. But your reg-ex is not rejecting them.

• What happens if they enter "September 08 2024" or "09 08 2024" or "september, 8 2024" or "september,8,2024" or "september 8/2024"

• what about "08/sep1/oo2024oo"

• what about "#$/afd1@/20$d" ?

• Try using some bad inputs and ask yourself did the program do what it was supposed to do for these bad inputs?

"They are not what they should be" is not accurate now was your original problem statement. It's not about 'mixed formats' it is about incorrect formats, the input hasn't been properly validated per the instructions.

You can't make them work? What have you tried doing?