CODEWITHSUNDEEP
pythonstringtime
memery
memery

Reputation: 37

A better way of converting a string into a range of dates (and back again)?

I'm trying to convert a string such as '2014-10-21 to 2014-10-23' to 'October 21-23, 2014' in Python. I already have a working version of this function, but it's extremely clunky.

import time
etime = '2014-10-21 to 2014-10-23'
time_pair = etime.split(' to ')
times = []
for i in time_pair:
    trans_time = time.strptime(i, "%Y-%m-%d")
    times.append(trans_time)
convert = []
for i in times:
   foo = time.strftime("%B %d %Y", i)
   convert.append(foo)
final = []
for i in convert:
    final.append(i.split(' '))
eventer = final[0][0]
if final[0][0] == final[1][0]:
    eventer = eventer[:] + ' ' + final[0][1] + '-' + final[1][1] + ', ' + final[0][2] 
else:
    eventer = eventer[:] + ' ' + final[0][1] + '-' + final[1][0] + ' ' + final[1][1] + ', ' + final[0][2]

How should could I improve this function?

Upvotes: 0

Views: 51

Answers (2)

SebasSBM
SebasSBM

Reputation: 908

I improved it this way:

import calendar
etime = '2014-10-21 to 2014-10-23'
time_pair = etime.split(' to ')
dates = []
dates.append(time_pair[0].split('-'))
dates.append(time_pair[1].split('-'))

# Month = 1
Month1 = calendar.month_name[int(dates[0][1])] + ' '
Month2 = calendar.month_name[int(dates[1][1])] + ' '

if Month1 == Month2:
    Month2 = ""

result = Month1 + dates[0][2] + '-'
result+= Month2 + dates[1][2] + ', ' + dates[0][0]
if dates[0][0] != dates[1][0]:
    result += '-' + dates[1][0]

EDIT: While I was improving this, someone posted first. My hat is off to Peter Gibson, his solution is even better than mine.

Upvotes: 0

Peter Gibson
Peter Gibson

Reputation: 19564

import time

def format_date_range(etime):
    input_date_strs = etime.split(' to ')

    # use a list comprehension and tuple expansion
    # typically 'i' is used for numbers, use of s hints at the items being strs
    start, end = [time.strptime(s, "%Y-%m-%d") for s in input_date_strs]

    # if both in the same year, omit it from start date
    start_fmt = "%B %d" if start.tm_year == end.tm_year else "%B %d %Y"

    # if both in the same month and year, omit month from end date
    end_fmt = "%d, %Y" if (start.tm_mon, start.tm_year) == (end.tm_mon, end.tm_year) else "%B %d %Y"

    return time.strftime(start_fmt, start)+ '-' + time.strftime(end_fmt, end)

TEST_TIMES = [
    '2014-10-21 to 2014-10-23',
    '2014-10-21 to 2015-10-23',
    '2014-10-21 to 2014-11-23',
    '2014-10-21 to 2015-10-23',
    ]

for etime in TEST_TIMES:
    print format_date_range(etime)

Outputs:

October 21-23, 2014
October 21 2014-October 23 2015
October 21-November 23 2014
October 21 2014-October 23 2015

Upvotes: 2

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