date diff calc

[tertius]

Hi,

Is there a more pythonic way to write or do a date difference
calculation? I have as input two date fields in the form 'YYYY-MM-DD'

TIA
Terius

from datetime import date

bdl = '2004-11-25'.split('-')
edl = '2004-11-30'.split('-')
bd = date(int(bdl[0]), int(bdl[1]), int(bdl[2]))
ed = date(int(edl[0]), int(edl[1]), int(edl[2]))

print ed , '-', bd , '=', (ed-bd).days

[Diez B. Roggisch]

> bdl = '2004-11-25'.split('-')

edl = '2004-11-30'.split('-')
bd = date(int(bdl[0]), int(bdl[1]), int(bdl[2]))
ed = date(int(edl[0]), int(edl[1]), int(edl[2]))
using time.strptime and datetime.date.fromtimestamp is surely the better
alternative, as it lets specify you the format by a string.
print ed , '-', bd , '=', (ed-bd).days

I can't imagine what could possibly be easier than subtracting two dates -
in fact, most times one has to jump through much more hoops to achieve
these results, e.g. in java.

--
Regards,

Diez B. Roggisch

[tertius]

Diez B. Roggisch wrote:

I can't imagine what could possibly be easier than subtracting two dates -
in fact, most times one has to jump through much more hoops to achieve
these results, e.g. in java.

I'll try that.

Thanks,
T

[Skip Montanaro]

tertius> Is there a more pythonic way to write or do a date difference
tertius> calculation? I have as input two date fields in the form
tertius> 'YYYY-MM-DD'

How about:

import datetime
import time

bd = "2004-11-25"
ed = "2004-11-30"

start = datetime.date.fromtimestamp(time.strptime("%Y-%m-%d", bd))
end = datetime.date.fromtimestamp(time.strptime("%Y-%m-%d", ed))

print ed , '-', bd , '=', (end-start).days

I think that for completeness' sake it would be nice if datetime exposed a
fromstring method which accepted a string representing a date and a format
specifier, e.g.:

start = datetime.date.fromstring("%Y-%m-%d", "2004-11-25")
end = datetime.date.fromstring("%Y-%m-%d", "2004-11-30")

(Maybe it should be called "strptime", since that's the call it's saving.)

The datetime.date object already exposes a strftime method for generating a
formatted string output and will create date objects from both time.time()
output (fromtimestamp) and "proleptic Gregorian ordinal"s (fromordinal).
Looking at the datetime module docs, it's not at all obvious to me that the
latter would be used all that often. I think inputs from strings would be
much more common.

Skip

[Rick Holbert]

Here's how to do it as a one-liner:

python -c "import datetime; import time; print 'Only %d days until
Christmas' % (datetime.date(2004, 12, 25) -
datetime.date.fromtimestamp(time.time())).days"

Here's a slightly shorter way of doing it:

python -c "import time; print 'Only %f more days until Christmas' %
(float(time.mktime(time.strptime('2004-12-25', '%Y-%m-%d')) -
time.time()) / 86400)"

[Tim Peters]

[Skip Montanaro]

...
The datetime.date object already exposes a strftime method for
generating a formatted string output and will create date objects
from both time.time() output (fromtimestamp) and "proleptic
Gregorian ordinal"s (fromordinal). Looking at the datetime module
docs, it's not at all obvious to me that the latter would be used all
that often.
Then the part of the docs you're overlooking is the part explaining
that "Calendrical Calculations" bases all its calendar conversions on
proleptic Gregorian ordinals. They're for people who want something
other than the Gregorian calendar, and want it enough to write some
code.
I think inputs from strings would be much more common.

Me too, although it's a bottomless pit.

guess-6-intended-meanings-for-1/2/3-before-breakfast-ly y'rs

[Peter Hansen]

Tim Peters wrote:

[Skip Montanaro]

I think inputs from strings would be much more common.

Me too, although it's a bottomless pit.

guess-6-intended-meanings-for-1/2/3-before-breakfast-ly y'rs

I think Skip was intending that the format string be mandatory,
to avoid such ambiguity. At least, that's what I inferred from
his example, where the format string came before the date string:

start = datetime.date.fromstring("%Y-%m-%d", "2004-11-25")

-Peter

[Tim Peters]

[Skip Montanaro]

I think inputs from strings would be much more common.

[Tim Peters] Me too, although it's a bottomless pit.

guess-6-intended-meanings-for-1/2/3-before-breakfast-ly y'rs

[Peter Hansen] I think Skip was intending that the format string be mandatory,
to avoid such ambiguity. At least, that's what I inferred from
his example, where the format string came before the date string:

start = datetime.date.fromstring("%Y-%m-%d", "2004-11-25")

It's still a bottomless pit -- ask Brett, who implemented the Python
strptime <wink>. But now that we *have* a portable strptime
implementation, perhaps it would be OK to teach datetime about it.

OTOH, is that what people really want? For all I know,
rfc822.getdate() or rfc822.getdate_tz() are what's really wanted, or
maybe some DWIM thing like Zope's date guessers.

Does anyone want any of those enough to write the code, tests, and
docs? If so, the first person to do so will probably win the debate
....

[Peter Hansen]

Tim Peters wrote:

[Peter Hansen]

I think Skip was intending that the format string be mandatory,
to avoid such ambiguity.
It's still a bottomless pit -- ask Brett, who implemented the Python
strptime <wink>.

True, I did overlook timezones at the time.

On the other hand, that's because *my* use cases for "simple"
fromstring() behaviour are all involving local time. When
I'm interested in non-local time, I would be happy having
to specify that behaviour in a more complex manner.
OTOH, is that what people really want? For all I know,
rfc822.getdate() or rfc822.getdate_tz() are what's really wanted, or
maybe some DWIM thing like Zope's date guessers.

To each his own, although I think there's a hope here that
for those who might need/want a really simple solution,
95% of people have this in mind (pseudo-code):

class datetime.date:
def fromstring(format, string):
ts = time.mktime(time.strptime(string, format))
return datetime.date.fromtimestamp(ts)

The .fromtimestamp() methods already work only for local
time, and I haven't heard anyone complaining about that
either. (Hmm... haven't been listening either though. :-)

-Peter

[David Fraser]

Peter Hansen wrote:

Tim Peters wrote:

[Peter Hansen]

I think Skip was intending that the format string be mandatory,
to avoid such ambiguity.

It's still a bottomless pit -- ask Brett, who implemented the Python
strptime <wink>.

True, I did overlook timezones at the time.

On the other hand, that's because *my* use cases for "simple"
fromstring() behaviour are all involving local time. When
I'm interested in non-local time, I would be happy having
to specify that behaviour in a more complex manner.

OTOH, is that what people really want? For all I know,
rfc822.getdate() or rfc822.getdate_tz() are what's really wanted, or
maybe some DWIM thing like Zope's date guessers.

To each his own, although I think there's a hope here that
for those who might need/want a really simple solution,
95% of people have this in mind (pseudo-code):

class datetime.date:
def fromstring(format, string):
ts = time.mktime(time.strptime(string, format))
return datetime.date.fromtimestamp(ts)

Hear, hear, the above would be great!