Compare File Save Date to a Specific Date

Question

I am working on a python script to process mxd files.  I would like to only process mxd files that are newer than a specific date.  I have been able to compare time from now to a specific date but it keeps changing from day to day.  I would actually just like to compare the date saved to a specific date.  Is this possible with some type of date comparison (date > some date)?

mvolz47 · Answer

Doug:

Thanks for the assistance.

I finally found the issue which had to do with the import of the datetime module.

I had this statement at the top of my script

from datetime import datetime

maxdate = datetime.date(2011, 7, 2) throws the error I described previously

I had to change this statement to

maxdate = datetime(2011, 7, 2)

and the error disappeared

I did not realize I was using the additional module reference at the beginning of the script

DouglasSands · Answer

To your first question about comparing to a specific date:

import datetime
filedate = datetime.fromtimestamp(os.path.getmtime(rootpath + "/" + fName)) #filedate = datetime.date(2014, 1, 27)
today = datetime.now
maxdate = datetime.date(2011, 7, 2)
#Only do work if the number of days since the last change is less than the number of days since a 'too long ago' date.
if (filedate - today).days < (filedate - maxdate).days:
    print('Work on this file')
else:
    print('Do nothing')

When I try and test the 2nd issue you bring up, I don't see the same result as you:
>>> import datetime
>>> test = datetime.date(2011, 7, 2)
>>> print test
2011-07-02
>>> str(test)
'2011-07-02'
>>>

It works for me as would be expected, so I don't have a good answer for you regarding that issue.

- Doug

mvolz47 · Answer

I am having some difficulties getting something seemingly simple to work.

import datetime

then_test = datetime.date(2011, 7, 2)

print then_test

According to documentation this should print 2011-07-29

but I am getting the error message descriptor 'date' requires a 'datetime.datetime' object but received a 'int'

Anyone know where I am going wrong here?