Difference between two dates in Python

Question

I have two different dates and I want to know the difference in days between them. The format of the date is YYYY-MM-DD.

I have a function that can ADD or SUBTRACT a given number to a date:

def addonDays(a, x):
   ret = time.strftime("%Y-%m-%d",time.localtime(time.mktime(time.strptime(a,"%Y-%m-%d"))+x*3600*24+3600))      
   return ret

where A is the date and x the number of days I want to add. And the result is another date.

I need a function where I can give two dates and the result would be an int with date difference in days.

Answer 1

Use - to get the difference between two datetime objects and take the days member.

from datetime import datetime

def days_between(d1, d2):
    d1 = datetime.strptime(d1, "%Y-%m-%d")
    d2 = datetime.strptime(d2, "%Y-%m-%d")
    return abs((d2 - d1).days)