Comparing two date strings in Python

Question

Let's say I have a string: "10/12/13" and "10/15/13", how can I convert them into date objects so that I can compare the dates? For example to see which date is before or after.

Answer 1

Use datetime.datetime.strptime:

>>> from datetime import datetime as dt
>>> a = dt.strptime("10/12/13", "%m/%d/%y")
>>> b = dt.strptime("10/15/13", "%m/%d/%y")
>>> a > b
False
>>> a < b
True
>>>

Answer 2

If you like to use the dateutil and its parser:

from dateutil.parser import parse

date1 = parse('10/12/13')
date2 = parse('10/15/13')

print date1 - date2
print date2 > date2

Answer 3

Here's one solution using datetime.datetime.strptime:

>>> date1 = datetime.datetime.strptime('10/12/13', '%m/%d/%y')
>>> date2 = datetime.datetime.strptime('10/15/13', '%m/%d/%y')
>>> date1 < date2
True
>>> date1 > date2
False

Answer 4

Use datetime.datetime.strptime.

from datetime import datetime

a = datetime.strptime('10/12/13', '%m/%d/%y')
b = datetime.strptime('10/15/13', '%m/%d/%y')

print 'a' if a > b else 'b' if b > a else 'tie'

Answer 5

import datetime

d1="10/12/13"
d2="10/15/13"
date = d1.split('/')
d1=datetime.datetime(int(date[2]),int(date[1]),int(date[0])) 
date = d2.split('/')
d2=datetime.datetime(int(date[2]),int(date[1]),int(date[0]))
if d1 > d2 :
    ## Code
today = datetime.datetime.today()
if d1 > today :
    ## code

---

Answer 6

I know this post is 7 years old, but wanted to say that you can compare two date strings without converting them to dates

>>> "10/12/13" > "10/15/13"
False
>>> "10/12/13" < "10/15/13"
True
>>> "10/12/13" == "10/15/13"
False

If there is anything wrong with this approach I would love for someone to tell me.

Answer 7

The simplest way to accomplish this is using Pandas

import pandas as pd
d1=pd.to_datetime("10/12/13")
d2=pd.to_datetime("10/12/15")

d1>d2

>>False