Regex to match proper nouns + numbers - regex

Question

I am trying to make a regex that matches proper nouns including numbers (if there are any) i.e. Fifa 2017
I have this:
(?:\s*\b([A-Z][a-z]+)\b)+
...which gets the string without numbers.
Test at: http://regexr.com/3dmuo
I've fiddled around with so many approaches but Regex is dare I say slightly beyond my ability.
Thanks in advance for any advice.

Answer 1

This solution shows how to match a single-word resembling a "proper noun" followed by a number. This explicitly matches a word-like string starting with a capital letter, followed by any number of letters or digits until a space is reached, and then any number of digits.
data = [
"I am reviewing Fifa 2017",
"I am reviewing Mighty No 9",
"I am writing about Unreal Engine",
"Are you interested in MotoGP 2017?",
"When does NASCAR 2017 start?",
"Can Team Ferrari win Formula1 2017?",
"Or will Red Bull take the Formula 1 2017 win?",
"I plan to see F-1 2019, so I best start planning now!",
"Have you used an Apple Mac Book Pro lately?",
"Microsoft makes consumer operating systems"
];
for (var i in data) {
var match = data[i].match(/(?:\b[A-Z][A-Za-z0-9]+\b)(?:\s*\b[A-Z][A-Za-z0-9]+\b)*(?:\s*\d+)?/g);
if (match) {
console.log(data[i], " match: ", match)
} else {
console.log(data[i], " doesn't match!")
}
}
The data used is taken as a riff on the original example of "Fifa 2017", and other major sporting seasons are also represented. There are a variety of requirements represented here.
One failing examples is presented for "F-1 2019", since it fails to meet the original specification. Matching that case, as well, would not be difficult, but the specification would need to be expanded to suit.
There are also a few false matches, due to the specification. These matches are either due to matching text that looks like a "proper noun" (e.g. "When", "Or", "Have") or numbers within the "proper noun", but separated by space (e.g. "Formula 1 2017" matches "Formula 1", but not the "2017"). These may or may not be able to be handled strictly by a regex, and might even be too complex for solving in the general case.
If the input text is suitably constrained, this sort of searching can work, but there may be exceptions that occur unexpectedly.

Answer 2

I looked at the rules for proper nouns in Wikipedia: Letter Case to create a fairly comprehensive english language proper-noun-finder. I have no formal training in regex so please point out any mistakes (still don't know how \b works, ha ha).
(\b(the\b\s\b)?((([A-Z]('[A-Z])?[a-z]+)-*)+\b((\s\b(of|the|de|los|e|van|der|von|zu|d|di|ibn)\b)*(\s\b([A-Z]('[A-Z])?[a-z]+)-*)+\b)*)+)+
The major issue with this parser is that it recognizes the beginning of each sentence as a proper noun.
This may be desirable to you, because the alternative is to sometimes recognize broken words. For example, Jade Smith is swell. Tim van Smythe isn't will recognize Smith and Smythe as the only proper nouns, if you implement my below solution.
If your parser support negative lookbehind, you can prepend (?<!([.!?;]['"]?\s\b)|^) to the regex string.
Some parsers (such as python's re module) will treat the ^ (beginning of string) as a non-fixed width, and reject your search. My solution to this problem was to remove it (making the prepend be (?<![.!?;]['"]?\s\b) instead), and prepend . to the input string.
This matches all(most) words that begin with a single capital letter. It does allow for complicated names, but obviously doesn't take everything into account. I was fairly rigid in only matching correctly-capitalized proper nouns, but regex has limitations and I'm not very good at it in the first place.
For example, here's a list of potential matches:
Tam O'Shanter or Tam-O-Shanter but not Tam o'Shanter or Tam-o-Shanter
Rio di Janeiro or Rio Di Janeiro (both correct as far as I know)
Ludvig van Halen
Shea D'Angelo and Shea d Angelo but not Shea d'Angelo
It does not match acronyms, such as NBA, FIFA, or NHL. Importantly, this means that it will not match Jonah J. Jamieson as a full proper noun (it will match Jonah and Jamieson as two separate nouns). It cannot handle single-letter proper nouns.

Answer 3

Try this:
(?:\s*\b([A-Z][a-z]+)\b)+\s?(\d+)?