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Re: Using Python for date calculations

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On 11/21/2014 12:35 AM, Steve Hayes wrote:
> I've finally found a use for Python.
>
> When, in the course of my genealogy research, I look at census or burial
> records, I often want to work out a person's date of birth from their age.
> It's a simple matter of mental arithmetic, but I sometimes get it wrong, and
> mislead myself. There are calculators and date calculation programs, but they
> are usually too complicated and try to do too much, so by the time you've
> worked out what to do it takes much longer.
>
> This Python script does it for me.
>
> year = input("Year: ")
> age = input("Age: ")
> born = year-age
> print 'Year of birth:', born
>
> It's so simple, so elementary, that it's not really worth writing about,
> except for the fact that it illustrates the KISS principle.
>
> It is sometimes better to have a simple program that does one thing well than
> a complex one that does lots of things, but none of them very efficiently.
>
> The average hand calculator can do the same job, but you have to pick it up
> and put it down, and you can't easily see if you've made a typo.
>
> Having said that, however, yes, I would perhaps like to use Python for more
> complicated date processing routines, namely to convert the kinds of dates
> produced by genealogy programs to a simple yyyy-mm-dd that computer database
> programs can understand, so that "Abt May 1677" would be rendered as
> "1677-05-00"
>
> Has anyone done something like that in Python?
>
>
>

The datetime module has lots of capabilities including the several you 
mention.

See  https://docs.python.org/2/library/datetime.html

Gary Herron

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Thread

Using Python for date calculations Steve Hayes <hayesstw@telkomsa.net> - 2014-11-21 10:35 +0200
  Re: Using Python for date calculations Chris Angelico <rosuav@gmail.com> - 2014-11-21 19:40 +1100
    Re: Using Python for date calculations Steve Hayes <hayesstw@telkomsa.net> - 2014-11-21 12:15 +0200
      Re: Using Python for date calculations Chris Angelico <rosuav@gmail.com> - 2014-11-21 21:18 +1100
      Re: Using Python for date calculations alister <alister.nospam.ware@ntlworld.com> - 2014-11-21 10:33 +0000
        Re: Using Python for date calculations Chris Angelico <rosuav@gmail.com> - 2014-11-21 21:47 +1100
        Re: Using Python for date calculations random832@fastmail.us - 2014-11-21 08:54 -0500
          Re: Using Python for date calculations alister <alister.nospam.ware@ntlworld.com> - 2014-11-21 14:54 +0000
        Re: Using Python for date calculations random832@fastmail.us - 2014-11-21 08:58 -0500
          Re: Using Python for date calculations Steven D'Aprano <steve+comp.lang.python@pearwood.info> - 2014-11-22 01:55 +1100
            Re: Using Python for date calculations Ned Batchelder <ned@nedbatchelder.com> - 2014-11-21 10:25 -0500
        Re: Using Python for date calculations Chris Angelico <rosuav@gmail.com> - 2014-11-22 01:08 +1100
      Re: Using Python for date calculations Dennis Lee Bieber <wlfraed@ix.netcom.com> - 2014-11-21 14:50 -0500
        Re: Using Python for date calculations Steve Hayes <hayesstw@telkomsa.net> - 2014-11-22 07:07 +0200
          Re: Using Python for date calculations Chris Angelico <rosuav@gmail.com> - 2014-11-22 16:13 +1100
  Re: Using Python for date calculations Gary Herron <gary.herron@islandtraining.com> - 2014-11-21 00:50 -0800
  Re: Using Python for date calculations Mark Lawrence <breamoreboy@yahoo.co.uk> - 2014-11-21 10:20 +0000
    Re: Using Python for date calculations alister <alister.nospam.ware@ntlworld.com> - 2014-11-21 10:38 +0000
    Re: Using Python for date calculations Steve Hayes <hayesstw@telkomsa.net> - 2014-11-21 17:50 +0200
      Re: Using Python for date calculations Mark Lawrence <breamoreboy@yahoo.co.uk> - 2014-11-21 16:01 +0000
  Re: Using Python for date calculations Chris Angelico <rosuav@gmail.com> - 2014-11-21 21:27 +1100
  Re: Using Python for date calculations duncan smith <buzzard@invalid.invalid> - 2014-11-21 17:03 +0000
    Re: Using Python for date calculations Steve Hayes <hayesstw@telkomsa.net> - 2014-11-21 21:48 +0200
      Re: Using Python for date calculations Dennis Lee Bieber <bieber.genealogy@earthlink.net> - 2014-11-21 15:32 -0500
  Re: Using Python for date calculations Dennis Lee Bieber <bieber.genealogy@earthlink.net> - 2014-11-21 14:35 -0500
    Re: Using Python for date calculations Paul Blair <p.blair@internode.on.net> - 2014-11-22 06:51 +1100
      Re: Using Python for date calculations Steve Hayes <hayesstw@telkomsa.net> - 2014-11-22 07:31 +0200
    Re: Using Python for date calculations Denis Beauregard <denis.b-at-francogene.com@fr.invalid> - 2014-11-21 15:07 -0500
      Re: Using Python for date calculations Steve Hayes <hayesstw@telkomsa.net> - 2014-11-22 07:34 +0200

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