The line of code: date=DateTime('2003/13/03') causes zope to try to create a date variable based on the string '2003/13/03'. Zope will try a variety of formats to find one that works (zope does not know that you want yyyy/mm/dd, it just tries to make it work). The line of code: print date.strftime("%Y %B %d") just takes a date variable and prints it out according to the format supplied ("%Y %B %d"). There is no relationship between the two lines of code (ie. the second line of code does not supply the format that you want the first line of code to use). There is a function called strptime in the python Time module that will parse a string according to a given format. I have never used it, but you can find a description of this routine in the Python Library Reference manual. Jonathan ----- Original Message ----- From: Philippe Vignaux To: zope@zope.org Sent: November 24, 2003 9:37 AM Subject: [Zope] date formats Hi all ! . can't get rid off my dates problems .. I would like the following python statements to apply validity checks on a date always inputed under format YYYY / MM / DD (GMT+1) The 2 first examples behaves as expected. The last one not. try: date=DateTime('2003/07/03') print date.strftime("%Y %B %d") except: print 'error' return printed 2003 July 03 (OK) try: date=DateTime('2003/03/07') print date.strftime("%Y %B %d") except: print 'error' return printed 2003 March 07 (OK) try: date=DateTime('2003/13/03') print date.strftime("%Y %B %d") except: print 'error' return printed 2003 March 13 (NOK) While I'm expecting an error (no months with id 13 !!!) it reverses the month part and the day part !! Why ?? Is that the normal behaviour ?? Or is there any parameter to provide so that python knows the format is always YYYY / MM / DD (the setup: Windows 2000 server Zope 2.6.2 python 2.1 ) Thanks for any help ! Phil. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ _______________________________________________ Zope maillist - Zope@zope.org http://mail.zope.org/mailman/listinfo/zope ** No cross posts or HTML encoding! ** (Related lists - http://mail.zope.org/mailman/listinfo/zope-announce http://mail.zope.org/mailman/listinfo/zope-dev )

hi there i handled this problem by writing the following 2 functions: def tmCheckDate(self, p_datestring, p_separator='/'): """This functions takes a string that reprezents a date like 'dd/mm/yyyy' and tests is a valide date.""" l_isDate = 1 l_daysInMonth = [31, 28, 31, 30, 31, 30, 31, 31, 30, 31, 30, 31] l_dateparts = p_datestring.split(p_separator) if len(l_dateparts) != 3: l_isDate = 0 else: l_intYear = l_dateparts[2] l_intMonth = l_dateparts[1] l_intDay = l_dateparts[0] try: l_intYear = int(l_intYear, 10) l_intMonth = int(l_intMonth, 10) l_intDay = int(l_intDay, 10) except: l_isDate = 0 else: if (l_intYear <= 50): l_intYear += 2000 if (l_intYear >= 51 and l_intYear < 100): l_intYear += 1900 if ((l_intMonth==0) or (l_intMonth > 12) or (l_intDay == 0) or (l_intYear > 9999)): l_isDate = 0 else: if (l_intMonth == 2): #february if calendar.isleap(l_intYear): l_nDays = 29 else: l_nDays = 28 else: l_nDays = l_daysInMonth[l_intMonth-1] if (l_intDay > l_nDays): l_isDate = 0 return l_isDate def tmConvertStringToDateTimeObj(self, p_datestring, p_separator='/'): """Takes a string that represents a date like 'dd/mm/yyyy' and returns a DateTime object""" try: l_dateparts = p_datestring.split(p_separator) l_intYear = int(l_dateparts[2], 10) l_intMonth = int(l_dateparts[1], 10) l_intDay = int(l_dateparts[0], 10) return DateTime('%s/%s/%s 00:00:00' % (l_intYear, l_intMonth, l_intDay)) except: return None i used the tmCheckDate function to validate strings like 'dd/mm/yyyy' that comes from a form or whatever, and after that tmConvertStringToDateTimeObj to get the DateTime object. you can modify the functions to work with 'YYYY/MM/DD' strings. hope this will help dragos ----- Original Message ----- From: Philippe Vignaux To: zope@zope.org Sent: Monday, November 24, 2003 4:37 PM Subject: [Zope] date formats Hi all ! . can't get rid off my dates problems .. I would like the following python statements to apply validity checks on a date always inputed under format YYYY / MM / DD (GMT+1) The 2 first examples behaves as expected. The last one not. try: date=DateTime('2003/07/03') print date.strftime("%Y %B %d") except: print 'error' return printed 2003 July 03 (OK) try: date=DateTime('2003/03/07') print date.strftime("%Y %B %d") except: print 'error' return printed 2003 March 07 (OK) try: date=DateTime('2003/13/03') print date.strftime("%Y %B %d") except: print 'error' return printed 2003 March 13 (NOK) While I'm expecting an error (no months with id 13 !!!) it reverses the month part and the day part !! Why ?? Is that the normal behaviour ?? Or is there any parameter to provide so that python knows the format is always YYYY / MM / DD (the setup: Windows 2000 server Zope 2.6.2 python 2.1 ) Thanks for any help ! Phil. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ _______________________________________________ Zope maillist - Zope@zope.org http://mail.zope.org/mailman/listinfo/zope ** No cross posts or HTML encoding! ** (Related lists - http://mail.zope.org/mailman/listinfo/zope-announce http://mail.zope.org/mailman/listinfo/zope-dev )