def compare_dates(date1: str, date2: str) -> str:
    date1_obj = datetime.strptime(date1, "%Y-%m-%dT%H:%M:%S")
    date2_obj = datetime.strptime(date2, "%Y-%m-%dT%H:%M:%S")
    return date1 if date1_obj > date2_obj else date2

Because the input sometimes includes microseconds. Is there a clearer way of dealing with this than what I've done?

def compare_dates(date1: str, date2: str) -> str:
    date_format = "%Y-%m-%dT%H:%M:%S"
    date1_obj = datetime.strptime(date1.split(".")[0], date_format)
    date2_obj = datetime.strptime(date2.split(".")[0], date_format)
    date1_obj = date1_obj.replace(microsecond=0)
    date2_obj = date2_obj.replace(microsecond=0)
    return date1 if date1_obj > date2_obj else date2

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[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

That looks like ISO8601 format so you can use fromisoformat to make the parsing a bit simpler. I'm not clear why you need to drop the microsecond part. Surely if one timestamp is a few microseconds past the second it is later.

d1 = datetime.fromisoformat(date1)
d2 = datetime.fromisoformat(date2)

return date1 if d1 > d2 else date2

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

if you are reasonably confident your input dates match your format, you could just return date1 if date1>date2 else date2 and call it a day.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

Second this : this is a strong benefit of using ISO8601 format as you do : you can use alpha-numeric sort directly.

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