CODEWITHSUNDEEP
pythonstringdatetimepython-datetime
Ebin Davis
Ebin Davis

Reputation: 6109

TypeError: '>' not supported between instances of 'datetime.datetime' and 'str'

I am new to python date and time types.

I have a date value.

date = '2018-11-10 10:55:31+00:00'

I need to check this date value is older than 90 days.

I tried :

from datetime import datetime
from datetime import timedelta

past = datetime.now() - timedelta(days=90)
date = '2018-11-10 10:55:31+00:00'

if past > date :
   print("This is older than 90 days")

failing with the following error :
TypeError: '>' not supported between instances of 'datetime.datetime' and 'str'

This might be because the date format for 'past' and the date value which I passed is different.

How can I come up with this ?

Upvotes: 35

Views: 157429

Answers (3)

jpp
jpp

Reputation: 164623

You need to convert your date string to datetime. You can do this in a couple of ways.

Use built-in datetime.strptime

For example, first convert to datetime before your comparison. This requires you to specify the format precisely ahead of time:

date = '2018-11-10 10:55:31+00:00'
date = datetime.strptime(date[:-6], '%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S')

print(date)

datetime.datetime(2018, 11, 10, 10, 55, 31)

Use a 3rd party library

One popular tool is dateutil.parser, which is able to parse most common datetime formats without the format specified in advance:

from datetime import datetime, timedelta
from dateutil import parser

past = datetime.now() - timedelta(days=90)
date1 = '2018-11-10 10:55:31+00:00'
date2 = '2017-11-10 10:55:31+00:00'

for date in (date1, date2):
    if past > parser.parse(date[:-6]):
        print(f'This is older than 90 days: {date}')

This is older than 90 days: 2017-11-10 10:55:31+00:00

Upvotes: 2

ddor254
ddor254

Reputation: 1628

You can use dateutil package and just convert your date string date to `datetime object and then check the condition with : 

from dateutil import parser
past = datetime.now() - timedelta(days=90)
new_date = parser.parse("2018-11-10 10:55:31+00:00")
if past > new_date :
    print("This is older than 90 days")

that it : )

Upvotes: 5

PilouPili
PilouPili

Reputation: 2699

You have to use strptime to convert a string into a date.

The comparaison operator only applies between datetime.

date = datetime.strptime('2018-11-10 10:55:31', '%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S')

then can you do

if past > date :
   print("This is older than 90 days")

Upvotes: 18

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