Python regex match OR operator

Question

I\'m trying to match time formats in AM or PM.

i.e. 02:40PM
     12:29AM 

I\'m using the following regex

timePattern = re.compi         


        

Answer 1

It sounds like you're accessing group 1, when you need to be accessing group 0.

The groups in your regex are as follows:

\d{2}:\d{2}(AM|PM)
           |-----|  - group 1
|----------------|  - group 0 (always the match of the entire pattern)

You can access the entire match via:

timePattern.match('02:40PM').group(0)