Datetime usage in Python for finance related task

Question

I am a complete beginner in Python and it is my first question on Stackoverflow. I have tried numerous tutorials on youtube + some additional google searching, but havent been really able to completely solve my task. Briefly putting it below asf:

We have a dataset of futures prices (values) for next 12-36 months. Each value corresponds to one month in future. The idea for the code is to have an input of following:

1. starting date in days (like 2nd of Feb 2021 or any other)
2. duration of given days (say 95 or 150 days or 425 days)
3. The code has to calculate the number of days from each given month between starting and ending date (which is starting + duration) and then to use appropriate values from corresponding month to calculate an average price for this particular duration in time.

Example: Starting date is 2nd of Feb 2021 and duration is 95 days (end date 8th of May). Values are Feb - 7750, Mar - 9200, April - 9500, May is 10100.

I have managed to do same in Excel (which was very clumsy and too complicated to use on the daily basis) and average stands for around 8949 taking in mind all above. But I cant figure out how to code same "interval" with days per month in Python. All of the articles just simply point out to "monthrange" function, but how is that possible to apply same for this task?

Appreciate your understanding of a newbie question and sorry for the lack of knowledge to express/explain my thoughts more clear.

Looking forward to any help relative to above.

Answer 1

You can use dataframe.todatetime() to constuct your code. If you need further help, just click ctrl + tab within your code to see the inputs and their usage.

Answer 2

You can try the following code.

1. The input_start_date() function will input the start date, and return it when called.

2. After we have the start date we input the duration of days.

3. Then we simply add them using timedelta

4. For the Distribution of days in the month : SO - @wwii

import datetime
from datetime import timedelta

def input_start_date():
    YEAR = int(input('Enter the year : '))
    MONTH = int(input('Enter the month : '))
    DAY = int(input('Enter the day : '))

    DATE = datetime.date(YEAR, MONTH, DAY)

    return DATE

# get the start date:
Start_date = input_start_date()

# get the Duration
Duration = int(input('Enter the duration : '))

print('Start Date : ', Start_date)
print('Duration :', Duration)

# final date.
Final_date = Start_date + timedelta(days=Duration)
print(Final_date)

# credit goes to @wwii -----------------------
one_day = datetime.timedelta(1)
start_dates = [Start_date]
end_dates = []
today = Start_date
while today <= Final_date:
    tomorrow = today + one_day
    if tomorrow.month != today.month:
        start_dates.append(tomorrow)
        end_dates.append(today)
    today = tomorrow

end_dates.append(Final_date)
# -----------------------------------------------

print("Distribution : ")
for i in range(len(start_dates)):
    days = int(str(end_dates[i]-start_dates[i]).split()[0]) + 1
    print(start_dates[i], ' to ', end_dates[i], ' = ', days)

print(str(end_dates[0]-start_dates[0]))

'''
Distribution : 
2021-02-02  to  2021-02-28  =  27
2021-03-01  to  2021-03-31  =  31
2021-04-01  to  2021-04-30  =  30
2021-05-01  to  2021-05-08  =  8
'''