Finding Dates

You may also classify by dates found in the file or folder names and the days elapsed since the found date.

Imagine the folder names include dates,

Example parent directory

In this case add a date_format to search for. If the date format is known and consistent, you may set the format to ensure the correct date is the only date chosen from the folder name.

import lsframe as ls

path = '/path/to/directory/'
lsobject = ls.start(path,
                    patterns={'sample': 'sample\d'},
                    skip='sample7',
                    date_format='YYYYMMDD')

If the format is not known, or there is more than one format, you can search for any of a list of formats. For this behavior, supply a list of formats or look for all possible dates by setting date_format='any'. By using 'any' all logical dates are listed, along with a date_delta list and a date_format list. For example,

path = '/path/to/directory/'
lsobject = ls.start(path,
                    patterns={'sample': 'sample\d'},
                    skip='sample7',
                    date_format='any')

To just look for any of three formats,

path = '/path/to/directory/'
lsobject = ls.start(path,
                    patterns={'sample': 'sample\d'},
                    skip='sample7',
                    date_format=['YYYYMMDD', 'YYMMDD', 'MMDDYYYY'])

Find Dates Method

You can also modify an existing object to include dates or change to a different format using the find_dates() method. For example, change the date_format then update the dates information,

lsobject.date_format = 'YYYY-MM-DD'
lsobject.find_dates()

You may use lists here as well,

lsobject.date_format = ['YYYY-MM-DD', 'YY-MM-DD']
lsobject.find_dates()

Allowed Formats

The currently supported date_format options are,

• All possible combinations of four or two digit years, two or one digit months, and two or one digit days; with or without '-', '_', '/', ':', or ';' included. For example, any of these can be found: 'YYYYMMDD', 'YYMD', 'DD-MM-YY', 'DMYY', 'DD:MM:YYYY', 'D/M/YYYY', etc.

• 'any' will try all of the formats described above and give a list of all that are found if more than one