Python test datetime object if it is in the past present or future

September 22, 2022

in python, if I have a date string in the following format yyyy-mm-dd, I would like to write a function to check if the date is in the past, present or future. However, I am having some trouble with this. I have written the following code…

from datetime import datetime

def check_date(date_string):
    this_date = datetime.strptime(date_string, '%Y-%m-%d')
    now = datetime.today()
    if this_date < now:
        print("the date is in the past")
    elif this_date > now:
        print("the day is in the future")
    else:
        print("the day is today")

however, when I tested this, it gives me…

>>check_date('2022-08-08')
the date is in the past
>>check_date('2022-10-10')
the day is in the future
>>check_date('2022-09-22') #this is todays date
the date is in the past

I’m not sure why it is giving this unexpected behaviour.
thanks

>Solution :

Try this!

from datetime import datetime

def check_date(date_string):
    this_date = datetime.strptime(date_string, '%Y-%m-%d').date()
    now = datetime.today().date()
    print(now, this_date)
    if this_date < now:
        print("the date is in the past")
    elif this_date > now:
        print("the day is in the future")
    else:
        print("the day is today")