Python: Calculate a number of days between two dates

Last update on April 22 2025 12:47:25 (UTC/GMT +8 hours)

32. Days Between Two Dates

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:

For more Practice: Solve these Related Problems:

Write a Python program to calculate the exact number of days between two dates provided in "YYYY-MM-DD" format.
Write a Python script to compute the day difference between any two user-input dates and then display the result in days.
Write a Python function to find the number of days between two dates and then determine if that number is even or odd.
Write a Python program to calculate and print the number of days between two dates, along with the number of full weeks contained within.

Go to:

Previous: Write a Python program convert a string date to the timestamp.
Next: Write a Python program to calculate number of days between two datetimes.

Python Code Editor:

Contribute your code and comments through Disqus.