How to compare two dates?

How would I compare two dates to see which is later, using Python?

For example, I want to check if the current date is past the last date in this list I am creating, of holiday dates, so that it will send an email automatically, telling the admin to update the holiday.txt file.

Solution 1:

Use the datetime method and the operator < and its kin.

>>> from datetime import datetime, timedelta
>>> past = datetime.now() - timedelta(days=1)
>>> present = datetime.now()
>>> past < present
True
>>> datetime(3000, 1, 1) < present
False
>>> present - datetime(2000, 4, 4)
datetime.timedelta(4242, 75703, 762105)

Solution 2:

Use time

Let's say you have the initial dates as strings like these:

date1 = "31/12/2015"
date2 = "01/01/2016"

You can do the following:

newdate1 = time.strptime(date1, "%d/%m/%Y")
newdate2 = time.strptime(date2, "%d/%m/%Y")

to convert them to python's date format. Then, the comparison is obvious:

• newdate1 > newdate2 will return False
• newdate1 < newdate2 will return True