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Python Dates and Times in Python (2014) Dates and Times Wikipedia Links

Zachary Vacek
Zachary Vacek
11,133 Points
Posted by Zachary Vacek
Zachary Vacek
11,133 Points

How to input and return a list of dates and links?

I've figured out how to return an enumerated list of links after the user inputs some dates. Here is my code:

import datetime

date_list = []
answer_format = "%m/%d"
link_format = "%b_%d"
link = "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/{}"

while True:
    print("What date would you like? Please use MM/DD format. Enter 'quit' to quit. Use 'done' to print links. ")
    answer = input("> ")
    if answer.upper() == "QUIT":
        break
    elif answer.upper() == "DONE":
        for index, item in enumerate(date_list, 1):
            print("{}: {}".format(index, item))

    try:
        date = datetime.datetime.strptime(answer, answer_format)
        output = link.format(date.strftime(link_format))
        date_list.append(output)

    except ValueError:
        print("That's not a valid date. Please try again.")

But what I really want to do is have the program only ask for user input once, and the user can input a list of dates, seperated by commas, like this: "01/01, 02/02, 03/03..."

Then the program would then return a list of links.

Is that possible, and if so, can anyone give me a hint as to how to make that work?

Thanks! Zac

2 Answers

Anish Walawalkar
Anish Walawalkar
8,534 Points
Anish Walawalkar
Anish Walawalkar
8,534 Points

This is how I would do it:

import datetime
import sys

date_list = []
answer_format = "%m/%d"
link_format = "%b_%d"
link = "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/{}"


def create_wiki_time_links(dates):
    for date in dates:
        try:
            date_format = datetime.datetime.strptime(date, answer_format)
            output = link.format(date_format.strftime(link_format))
            date_list.append(output)
        except ValueError:
            print('{} is not a valid date'.format(date))


def get_dates_from_user():
    print("What date would you like? Please use MM/DD format. Enter 'quit' to quit. Use 'done' to print links. ")
    answer = raw_input("> ")
    dates = answer.split(', ')
    create_wiki_time_links(dates)

def print_dates():
    for index, link in enumerate(date_list):
        print('{}: {}'.format(index, link))

def main():
    get_dates_from_user()
    print_dates()

if __name__ == '__main__':
    try:
        main()
    except KeyboardInterrupt:
        sys.exit()

Since you only want to run the module once, I would suggest not running it in a while true loop. Also since you want the user to input all the dates on the same line separated by commas (;) you should call the split(', ') method on the answer. Check out my code. I'm using raw_input instead of input as I coded it with python 2.7

Zachary Vacek
Zachary Vacek
11,133 Points
Zachary Vacek
Zachary Vacek
11,133 Points

Awesome, thanks for the help Anish! Very helpful indeed.

Jason Whitaker
Jason Whitaker
12,252 Points
Jason Whitaker
Jason Whitaker
12,252 Points 
import datetime
import sys

date_list = []
answer_format = "%m/%d"
link_format = "%b_%d"
link = "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/{}"


def create_wiki_time_links(dates):
    for date in dates:
        try:
            date_format = datetime.datetime.strptime(date, answer_format)
            output = link.format(date_format.strftime(link_format))
            date_list.append(output)
        except ValueError:
            print('{} is not a valid date'.format(date))


def get_dates_from_user():
    print("What dates would you like? Use the MM/DD format. Enter 'quit' to quit. Use 'done' to print links")
    answer = input("Dates: ")
    dates = answer.split(', ')
    create_wiki_time_links(dates)

def print_dates():
    for index, link in enumerate(date_list):
        print('{}: {}'.format(index, link))

def main():
    get_dates_from_user()
    print_dates()

if __name__ == '__main__':
    try:
        main()
    except KeyboardInterrupt:
        sys.exit()

Modified to work on Python 3