Python: Calculate a number of days between two dates

Last update on December 21 2024 07:27:40 (UTC/GMT +8 hours)

Write a Python program to calculate the number of days between two dates.

Sample Solution:

Python Code:

 # Import the datetime module
import datetime
# Import the date class from datetime module
from datetime import date
# Define a function called differ_days which calculates the difference in days between two dates
def differ_days(date1, date2):
    # Assign date1 to variable a
    a = date1
    # Assign date2 to variable b
    b = date2
    # Return the difference in days between the two dates
    return (a - b).days
# Print an empty line
print()
# Print the difference in days between October 12, 2016 and December 10, 2015
print(differ_days((date(2016, 10, 12)), date(2015, 12, 10)))
# Print the difference in days between March 23, 2016 and December 10, 2017
print(differ_days((date(2016, 3, 23)), date(2017, 12, 10)))
# Print an empty line
print()

Output:

307                                                                                                           
-627

Explanation:

In the exercise above,

• The code imports the "datetime" module.
• It defines a function named "differ_days()" that takes two date objects (date1 and date2) as input and returns the difference in days between them.
• Inside the function:
• It assigns the input dates 'date1' and 'date2' to variables 'a' and 'b' respectively.
• It calculates the difference in days between the two dates using the 'days' attribute of the "timedelta" object obtained by subtracting 'b' from 'a'.
• It returns the difference in days.
• Then, it calls the "differ_days()" function twice:
• First, it calculates and prints the difference in days between October 12, 2016, and December 10, 2015.
• Second, it calculates and prints the difference in days between March 23, 2016, and December 10, 2017.

Flowchart:

Python Code Editor:

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