Comparing two date strings in Python

Question

Let\'s say I have a string: \"10/12/13\" and \"10/15/13\", how can I convert them into date objects so that I can compare the dates? For example to see which date is before

Answer 1

Use datetime.datetime.strptime.

from datetime import datetime

a = datetime.strptime('10/12/13', '%m/%d/%y')
b = datetime.strptime('10/15/13', '%m/%d/%y')

print 'a' if a > b else 'b' if b > a else 'tie'