Firstly 'input' is a reserved word in python, it's used to get input from the user, (rather like raw_input!). So that's why this line of code fails to do anything:

PYTHON Syntax (Toggle Plain Text)

input = raw_input("Type Date dd/mm/year: ")

input = raw_input("Type Date dd/mm/year: ")

Change your variable 'input' to something like 'userInput' or just anything that isn't a reserved word and you will get your prompt!

Secondly...No I don't think that strptime will work used like that! if your users enter anything other than yy-mm-dd, it will bomb out with an error!
But if you use a try: except: block inside a loop, you should be able to get the user to repeatedly enter the date until the format is correct!

Check this out:

PYTHON Syntax (Toggle Plain Text)

import datetime
def ObtainDate():
    isValid=False
    while not isValid:
        userIn = raw_input("Type Date dd/mm/yy: ")
        try: # strptime throws an exception if the input doesn't match the pattern
            d = datetime.datetime.strptime(userIn, "%d/%m/%y")
            isValid=True
        except:
            print "Doh, try again!\n"
    return d
 
#test the function
print ObtainDate()

import datetime def ObtainDate(): isValid=False while not isValid: userIn = raw_input("Type Date dd/mm/yy: ") try: # strptime throws an exception if the input doesn't match the pattern d = datetime.datetime.strptime(userIn, "%d/%m/%y") isValid=True except: print "Doh, try again!\n" return d #test the function print ObtainDate()

I've not done any exception handling code for a while, but there should be a way of outputting to the user the reason that the exception occurred.

I'll leave that up to you to look up!

Cheers for now,
Jas

Awesome I like it just one question why does the line below have datetime twice?

d = datetime.datetime.strptime(userIn, "%d/%m/%y")

You can trap error details this way:

python Syntax (Toggle Plain Text)

import datetime as dt
 
def ObtainDate():
    isValid=False
    while not isValid:
        userIn = raw_input("Type Date dd/mm/yy: ")
        try: # strptime throws an exception if the input doesn't match the pattern
            d1 = dt.datetime.strptime(userIn, "%d/%m/%y")
            isValid=True
#Perhaps set another try here.
            print d1, type(d1)  # 2003-07-15 00:00:00 <type 'datetime.datetime'>
            "convert datetime object to a 10 character string"
            d2 = str(d1)[:10]
            print d2, type(d2)  # 2003-07-15 <type 'str'>
        except ValueError, what_error:
            print what_error
            print "Try again! dd/mm/yy\n"
    Fname = "data.dat"
    newFname = d2 + Fname
    return newFname
 
print ObtainDate()  # 2003-07-15data.dat

import datetime as dt def ObtainDate(): isValid=False while not isValid: userIn = raw_input("Type Date dd/mm/yy: ") try: # strptime throws an exception if the input doesn't match the pattern d1 = dt.datetime.strptime(userIn, "%d/%m/%y") isValid=True #Perhaps set another try here. print d1, type(d1) # 2003-07-15 00:00:00 <type 'datetime.datetime'> "convert datetime object to a 10 character string" d2 = str(d1)[:10] print d2, type(d2) # 2003-07-15 <type 'str'> except ValueError, what_error: print what_error print "Try again! dd/mm/yy\n" Fname = "data.dat" newFname = d2 + Fname return newFname print ObtainDate() # 2003-07-15data.dat