scrapinghub / scrapinghub/dateparser

J, K, W, X, Y letters confuse the parser

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search_dates
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Python
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Description

When using search_dates, the following Italian date is correctly recognised as 10 February 2020, 15:00:

>>> search_dates('10 Febbraio 2020  15:00  ciao', add_detected_language=True, languages= ['it', 'en'], settings={'DATE_ORDER': 'DMY'})
[('10 Febbraio 2020 15:00', datetime.datetime(2020, 2, 10, 15, 0), 'it')]

However, the following is considered an English date and therefore parsed incorrectly:

>>> search_dates('10 Febbraio 2020  15:00 ciao moka', add_detected_language=True, languages= ['it', 'en'], settings={'DATE_ORDER': 'DMY'})
[('2020 15:00', datetime.datetime(2020, 8, 29, 15, 0), 'en')]

That happens whenever in the string appears one of the letters J, K, W, X, Y.
The parser assumes these letters ought not to be considered part of the Italian alphabet, but a large number of common Italian words have these letters, as for the Italian word moka.

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Research direction

Start by reproducing both Italian search_dates examples with add_detected_language=True, languages=['it', 'en'], and DATE_ORDER='DMY'. Trace the language-selection path used by search_dates, focusing on why words containing J, K, W, X, or Y select English. Done means the example containing “moka” remains recognized as the Italian date with the expected timestamp and language.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Assessment

Tech stack
python
Domain
localization
Issue type
Bug
Difficulty
3/5
Estimated time
1-2 days
Activity status
Stale
Clarity
Mostly clear
Newbie friendliness
45/100

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