How to scrub dates

Contents

• How to do it
• Adding custom date formats
  • Contributing Back:
• Supported formats

How to do it

The easiest way to scrub a date is by calling

verify(
    "created at 03:14:15",
    options=Options().with_scrubber(DateScrubber.get_scrubber_for("00:00:00")),
)

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which will produce

created at <date0>

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Adding custom date formats

If you encounter a date format that isn't supported by the built-in formats, you can easily add your own custom date scrubber using the add_scrubber method:

from approvaltests.scrubbers.date_scrubber import DateScrubber

# Add a custom date format
DateScrubber.add_scrubber("2025-07-20", r"\d{4}-\d{2}-\d{2}", display_message=False)

# Now you can use it in your tests
verify(
    "Event scheduled for 2025-07-20",
    options=Options().with_scrubber(DateScrubber.get_scrubber_for("2025-07-20")),
)

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Global scope: Custom scrubbers are available globally once added

Contributing Back:

If you think the format you want to scrub would be useful for others, please add it to https://github.com/approvals/ApprovalTests.Python/issues/124.

Supported formats

Example Date	Regex Pattern
Tue May 13 16:30:00	[a-zA-Z]{3} [a-zA-Z]{3} \d{2} \d{2}:\d{2}:\d{2}
Wed Nov 17 22:28:33 EET 2021	[a-zA-Z]{3} [a-zA-Z]{3} \d{2} \d{2}:\d{2}:\d{2} [a-zA-Z]{3,4} \d{4}
Tue May 13 2014 23:30:00.789	[a-zA-Z]{3} [a-zA-Z]{3} \d{2} \d{4} \d{2}:\d{2}:\d{2}.\d{3}
Tue May 13 16:30:00 -0800 2014	[a-zA-Z]{3} [a-zA-Z]{3} \d{2} \d{2}:\d{2}:\d{2} -\d{4} \d{4}
13 May 2014 23:50:49,999	\d{2} [a-zA-Z]{3} \d{4} \d{2}:\d{2}:\d{2},\d{3}
May 13, 2014 11:30:00 PM PST	[a-zA-Z]{3} \d{2}, \d{4} \d{2}:\d{2}:\d{2} [a-zA-Z]{2} [a-zA-Z]{3}
23:30:00	\d{2}:\d{2}:\d{2}
2014/05/13 16:30:59.786	\d{4}/\d{2}/\d{2} \d{2}:\d{2}:\d{2}.\d{2}\d
2020-9-10T08:07Z	\d{4}-\d{1,2}-\d{1,2}T\d{1,2}:\d{2}Z
2020-09-10T08:07:89Z	\d{4}-\d{1,2}-\d{1,2}T\d{1,2}:\d{2}:\d{2}Z
2020-09-10T01:23:45.678Z	\d{4}-\d{1,2}-\d{1,2}T\d{1,2}:\d{2}:\d{2}.\d{3}Z
2023-07-16 17:39:03.293919	\d{4}-\d{1,2}-\d{1,2}(?:T
20210505T091112Z	\d{8}T\d{6}Z
Tue May 13 16:30:00 2014	(Mon
2021-09-10T08:07:00+03:00	\d{4}-\d{2}-\d{2}T\d{2}:\d{2}:\d{2}+\d{2}:\d{2}
20250527_125703	[12]\d{3}[01]\d[0-3]\d_[0-2]\d[0-5]\d[0-5]\d
2020-02-02	\d{4}-\d{2}-\d{2}