Question

I have a Python 3.2.2 program and within it is a list that is something like this:

['January 26, 1991', 'February 29, 2012', 'December 10, 2094']

without using a million “if” statements, how might I take the list and change it or create a new list that looks like this:

['01261991', '02292012', '12102094']

basically convert the full date format into a mmddyyyy format?

I’ve looked at a variety of other questions on here and can’t seem to find one like this already. If anybody could point me in the right direction that would be great!

Answer 1

In case you don’t wanna use any modules you can try this:

dates=['January 26, 1991', 'February 29, 2012', 'December 10, 2094']
def converter(x):
   x=x.split()
   dic={'January':'01','February':'02','March':'03','April':'04','May':'05','June':'06',
         'July':'07','August':'08','September':'09','October':'10','November':'11','December':'12'
        }
   month,day,year=dic[x[0]],x[1][:-1],x[2]
   if len(day)==1:
     day='0'+day

   return month+day+year

new_lis=[]

for x in dates:
   new_lis.append(converter(x))

print(new_lis)

['01261991', '02292012', '12102094']