[jomiscli]

Hello!

I have a question. How does one find the days between two dates without using the datetime module?

I have been working on some code and I have gotten this so far to determine if each year in between each date is a leap year or not BUT, it seems very slow.

def isLeapYear(a):
    if a % 400 == 0:
        return True
    elif a % 100 == 0:
        return False
    elif a % 4 == 0:
        return True
    else:
        return False
    
def yearDifference(year1, year2):
    leap_count = 0
    begin_year = year1
    end_year = year2
    while begin_year <= end_year:
        test_leap = isLeapYear(begin_year)
        begin_year += 1
        if test_leap == True:
            leap_count += 1
    year_diff = (year2 - year1) * 365 + leap_count
    return year_diff

def daysBetweenDates(year1, month1, day1, year2, month2, day2):

There is the code I have so far. I still don't know what I should do when it comes to the months and days. I feel like the days and months in the first year should be subtracted, and the days and months in the second year should be added.

Any help would be awesome!!! Thank you!

This is also from the Udacity site the course of intro to computer programming.

[dwblas]

For starters, make sure year 2 > year1 before passing them to the function. yearDifference(year1, year2) should be passed year1+1 and year2-1 since year1 and year2 are not complete years almost all of the time. To calculate the days per month use a list.

days_per_month = [31, 28, 31, 30, 31, 30, 31, 31, 30, 31, 30, 31]
if is_leap_year(year1):
    days_per_month[1] = 29

month1 = 6
day1 = 5
month_days = 0
## will not count the sixth month (month1) since it is not complete
for ctr in range(month1):  ## and/or range(month1+1, 13)
    month_days += days_per_month[ctr]
print "%d days since the beginning of the year" % (month_days+day1)

Finally take a look at the Python Style Guide. Caps are only used in class names, not in function names. It makes other's code easier to read and understand.

[jomiscli]

Thank you for your reply

[jomiscli]

Ok so I wrote some code that was accepted! Here is it:

def isLeapYear(year1, year2):
    year_1 = year1
    year_2 = year2
    non_leap_years = []
    leap_years = []
    while year_1 <= year_2:
        non_leap_years.append(year_1)
        year_1 += 1
    for i in non_leap_years:
        if i % 4 == 0 or i % 400 == 0:
            leap_years.append(i)
            non_leap_years.remove(i)
            if i % 100 == 0:
                leap_years.remove(i)
                non_leap_years.append(i)
    year_days = len(non_leap_years) * 365 + len(leap_years) * 366
    return year_days, leap_years, non_leap_years

def daysBetweenDates(year1, month1, day1, year2, month2, day2):
    year_days, leap_years, non_leap_years = isLeapYear(year1, year2)
    days_of_months = [31, 28, 31, 30, 31, 30, 31, 31, 30, 31, 30, 31]
    if year1 in leap_years:
        days_of_months[1] = 29
    elif leap_years == None:
        days_of_months[1] = 28
    front_subtract = sum(days_of_months[:month1 - 1]) + day1
    if year2 in leap_years:
        days_of_months[1] = 29
    elif leap_years == None:
        days_of_months[1] = 28
    back_subtract = sum(days_of_months[month2 - 1:]) - day2
    days_between = year_days - front_subtract - back_subtract
    return days_between

Thank you for your help!

I wonder if anyone could show me a way to write this much smaller and more efficient then it is (assuming it ever was effiecient!!!)? Thanks!!!

[b49P23TIvg]

1: Your program gives incorrect result, off by 1, for

print(daysBetweenDates(1871, 10, 18, # Charles Babbage
           2004, 10, 19, # Ken Iverson
           ))

2: As you modified your functions you didn't change their names. Consequently you have functions which don't do what the names imply.

3: I had planned to time the programs. I don't know which is faster, I inserted a function call. Of course, I removed a list deletion. Anyway, I don't bother timing incorrect programs.

4: My code is 6 lines longer than yours, but then again, 29 lines of my code are explanation and tests.

'''
    >>> print('Command "python -m doctest q.py" to run doctests.')
    Command "python -m doctest q.py" to run doctests.
'''

def isLeapYear(year):
    '''
        Return True iff the year is a leap year.

        >>> [isLeapYear(year) for year in (1,2,3,4,100,200,300,400,)]
        [False, False, False, True, False, False, False, True]
    '''
    return not ((year % 4) or ((year % 100 == 0) and (year % 400)))

def LeapYears(year1, year2):
    '''
        return the number of leap years between the inclusive range year1 and year2

        >>> LeapYears(1996, 2000)
        2
    '''
    assert year1 <= year2
    return sum(isLeapYear(year) for year in range(year1, year2+1))

def daysBetweenDates(year1, month1, day1, year2, month2, day2):
    '''
        confirmed with
        http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=days+between+2004-OCT-19+and+1871-OCT-18

        >>> daysBetweenDates(
        ...     1871, 10, 18, # Charles Babbage
        ...     2004, 10, 19, # Ken Iverson
        ... )
        ...
        48579
    '''
    assert year1 <= year2
    leap_years = LeapYears(year1, year2)
    days_of_months = [31, None, 31, 30, 31, 30, 31, 31, 30, 31, 30, 31]
    days_of_months[1] = 28 + isLeapYear(year1)
    front_subtract = sum(days_of_months[:month1 - 1]) + day1
    days_of_months[1] = 28 + isLeapYear(year2)
    back_subtract = sum(days_of_months[month2 - 1:]) - day2
    return 365 * (1 + year2 - year1) + LeapYears(year1, year2) - front_subtract - back_subtract

[jomiscli]

Yeah with Udactiy the functions have to be named specifically or the code checker will not accept it, so naming the function isLeapYear() was a required name.

Thank you for the rewrite.

[b49P23TIvg]

I agree with your post. You made no false claims about caring that your program doesn't work. No false promises that you'll write a test in the future.

[jomiscli]

I'm sorry if I offended you in anyway. I am still not very knowledgeable when it comes to coding stuff, still just trying to wrap my head around one language

As far as this code went I had been banging my head against the wall for almost 4 days trying to figure out how to solve it, so when I put it through the checker at Udacity and it said "Correct!" I assumed it was correct! Sadly I guess it wasn't, there is a hole somewhere.

Finally thank you for re writing that code. I didn't take it or use it or anything, I was just curious to see how much better the code could be.

I have another snippet of code if you'd like to critique it:

def print_abacus(value):
    aba_list = list(str(value))  
    abacus = "00000*****"
    xtra_aba = range(10 - len(aba_list))
    if value == 0:
        print("|00000*****   |\n" * 10)
                        # |00000*****   |
                        # |00000*****   |
                        # |00000*****   |
                        # |00000*****   |
                        # |00000*****   |
                        # |00000*****   |
                        # |00000*****   |
                        # |00000*****   |
                        # |00000*****   |

    else:
        for i in xtra_aba:
            print("|" + abacus + "   |")
        for i in aba_list:
            print("|" + abacus[:-int(i)] + "   " + abacus[-int(i):] + "|")

                          # |00000*****   |
                          # |00000*****   |
                          # |00000****   *|
                          # |00000***   **|
                          # |00000**   ***|
                          # |00000*   ****|
                          # |00000   *****|
                          # |0000   0*****|
                          # |000   00*****|
                          # |00   000*****| value:  12345678

[b49P23TIvg]

I haven't found the problem, and I don't like the representation of the abacus. An abacus has a solid frame. That's not your fault. I did find someone else's solution. zeros display differently.

$ python [color=red]theirs[/py].py # value = 10203
|00000*****   |
|00000*****   |
|00000*****   |
|00000*****   |
|00000*****   |
|00000****   *|
|00000*****   |
|00000***   **|
|00000*****   |
|00000**   ***|


$ python [color=red]yours[/py].py  # value=10203
|00000*****   |
|00000*****   |
|00000*****   |
|00000*****   |
|00000*****   |
|00000****   *|
|   00000*****|
|00000***   **|
|   00000*****|
|00000**   ***|

[jomiscli]

I guess my zeros display differently because of the index? Could add another if statement to recognize it maybe. Thank you for catching that. At Udacity it only has a few test cases that need to be passed.

I try to find other ways to condense the code and fix the zero input.

Thank you again!