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This tutorial explains how to compare two dates in Python. There are multiple ways to determine which date is greater, so the tutorial also lists different sample codes to illustrate the different methods.

Comparing two dates in Python using datetimethe module and <the / >operator

datetimeThe simple comparison operator <or >can be used to compare two dates. datetimeThe module provides timedeltamethods to operate on dates and times. timedelta()The methods receive the number of days as input and can perform operations on them.

A sample code is given below.

from datetime import datetime, timedelta

previous_date = datetime.now() - timedelta(days=1)
current_date = datetime.now()
print(present > past)

Output:

True

datetime.date()Compare two dates in Python using the

datetime.date()Can also be used to compare two dates. datetime.date()The method takes year, month, and day as input. Create two dates to compare and use a simple comparison operator to compare the two dates.

A sample code is given below.

import datetime

first_date = datetime.date(2020, 12, 16)
second_date = datetime.date(2015, 12, 16)

result = first_date < second_date
print(result)

Output:

False

timeCompare two dates in Python using the module

timeThe module provides strptimethe method to operate on dates. It takes a date in string format as input and converts it to Python's date format. After that, a simple comparison can be done to compare two dates.

Below is an example code.

import time

first_date = "30/11/2020"
second_date = "12/10/2019"

formatted_date1 = time.strptime(first_date, "%d/%m/%Y")
formatted_date2 = time.strptime(second_date, "%d/%m/%Y")
print(formatted_date1 > formatted_date2)

Output:

True

datetimeCompare two dates in Python using the module

datetimeThe module provides datetime()a method that takes three parameters and creates a date from year, month, and day. After getting the dates, you can use comparison operators to compare them.

A sample code is given below.

import datetime

# date in yy/mm/dd format
first_date = datetime.datetime(2020, 5, 11)
second_date = datetime.datetime(2020, 6, 10)

print("first date is greater than second_date: ", first_date > second_date)
print("first date is smaller than second_date: ", first_date < second_date)
print("first date is not equal to second_date: ", first_date != second_date)

Output:

first date is greater than second_date:  False
first date is smaller than second_date:  True
first date is not equal to second_date:  True