datetime - Python 3.2 input date function

Question

I would like to write a function that takes a date entered by the user, stores it with the shelve function and prints the date thirty days later when called.

I'm trying to start with something simple like:

import datetime

def getdate():
    date1 = input(datetime.date)
    return date1

getdate()

print(date1)

This obviously doesn't work.

I've used the answers to the above question and now have that section of my program working! Thanks! Now for the next part:

I'm trying to write a simple program that takes the date the way you instructed me to get it and adds 30 days.

import datetime
from datetime import timedelta

d = datetime.date(2013, 1, 1)
print(d)
year, month, day = map(int, d.split('-'))
d = datetime.date(year, month, day)
d = dplanted.strftime('%m/%d/%Y')
d = datetime.date(d)+timedelta(days=30)
print(d)

This gives me an error: year, month, day = map(int, d.split('-')) AttributeError: 'datetime.date' object has no attribute 'split'

Ultimately what I want is have 01/01/2013 + 30 days and print 01/30/2013.

Thanks in advance!

Answer 1

The input() method can only take text from the terminal. You'll thus have to figure out a way to parse that text and turn it into a date.

You could go about that in two different ways:

• Ask the user to enter the 3 parts of a date separately, so call input() three times, turn the results into integers, and build a date:

  year = int(input('Enter a year'))
  month = int(input('Enter a month'))
  day = int(input('Enter a day'))
  date1 = datetime.date(year, month, day)
  

• Ask the user to enter the date in a specific format, then turn that format into the three numbers for year, month and day:

  date_entry = input('Enter a date in YYYY-MM-DD format')
  year, month, day = map(int, date_entry.split('-'))
  date1 = datetime.date(year, month, day)
  

Both these approaches are examples; no error handling has been included for example, you'll need to read up on Python exception handling to figure that out for yourself. :-)