commonregex

What it is and what it does

CommonRegex is a regex-based text parser that extracts structured data—dates, times, emails, phone numbers, URLs, IP addresses, prices, and similar patterns—from unstructured strings. It provides a simple object-oriented interface: instantiate a CommonRegex object with text, then access properties like .emails, .phones, .dates to retrieve matches. Alternatively, pass text to individual methods on a reusable parser instance.

The package is abandoned and has received no updates since 2014. It carries no runtime dependencies, making installation lightweight, but the regex patterns are fixed and English/US-specific. For modern use, you should verify that its patterns handle current URL schemes, email formats, and phone number conventions in your target region, and consider whether a maintained alternative better suits your needs.

Use it for:

• Extract contact information (emails, phone numbers) from user-submitted text or documents for validation or indexing.
• Parse timestamps and dates from log files or chat messages to identify when events occurred.
• Identify URLs in social media posts or user comments to detect linked resources.
• Scrape structured data like IP addresses or prices from plain-text reports or web content.
• Validate or categorize text fields in forms by detecting whether they contain recognizable patterns.

Worth the install?

AI-flagged interpretation of the facts on this page — verify before relying

Extracts dates, times, emails, phone numbers, links, IP addresses, prices, and other common patterns from text using regex.

No, unless you are maintaining legacy code that already depends on it. The package is abandoned (last release 2014, no commits since April 2023) and offers no maintenance or security updates. For new projects, use a maintained regex library or a specialized parser that handles modern formats and edge cases better. High install friction and lack of active development make this a poor choice for new work.

Install

commonregex on PyPI

pip install commonregex

uv add commonregex

poetry add commonregex

Installing commonregex

Before you install

High install friction with no runtime dependencies. Package is abandoned—last release was August 2014, over a decade ago, with no commits since April 2023. Development status is Beta. Consider this a legacy tool; active maintenance is not expected.

License in practice

MIT license is permissive and imposes no restrictions on use, modification, or distribution.

Quickstart

from commonregex import CommonRegex

parser = CommonRegex("Email me at test@example.com or call (519)-236-2723")
print(parser.emails)
print(parser.phones)

Package is English/US specific; behavior with other locales or date formats is not supported.

Verify before relying

• Whether regex patterns remain accurate for modern email, URL, and phone number formats.
• Compatibility with current Python versions (requires_python is unspecified in metadata).
• Whether false positives or false negatives in pattern matching are acceptable for your use case.

Package facts

Keywords: regex

Tags

More Text Processing packages