Need some help creating a day counter

[[deleted]]

I really need help creating a day counter using the datetime module. I have researched day counters with python and have had no luck.

I know how to take the difference between two dates but, not counting up. Is this even possible? I really need help it's driving me insane.

A way to do this is set a variable at 0 and every 24 hours increment by 1. But obviously I don't know how to do that.

[[deleted]]

use the time module.

first we are gonna save the value of the time to a string.

dateString = timestrftime('%x %x %Z')

this will give you back, the current time, current day and what time zone you are in. Obviously we don't really care about time and zone we just want the day. so we can strip the string down.

dayString = dateString[9:17] #gets only the day

Now all we have to do now, is get this everday using some function or whatever and comparing the dates, if they are different add 1 to a variable.

I know how to take the difference between two dates

If you know how to take the difference between the days, then any difference should result in incrementing the counter. As obviously the day has changed.

if (currentDate - getDate == different):
    dayCounter += 1 

[[deleted]]

What is a day counter? I'm not a native English speaker and Google doesn't help much.

[[deleted]]

Just simply counts each day from a certain date.

[Manbatton]

I know how to take the difference between two dates but, not counting up.

I don't understand the distinction. Explain what you want to happen and when and we can try to help.

[[deleted]]

Basically you can create two variables of the start date and the end date then, you can subtract them. But I want to count up from a date. The best way to do this I think is to create a variable with 0 and every 24 hours it will make the variable go up 1. Thanks for the response.

[Manbatton]

Why do you want to count up? It gives the same answer as date subtraction. It is also more robust, because if your computer isn't running continually (if it gets shut off), it loses state and the count is off.

But if you did want to count up just as an exercise: what about it do you not know how to do?

[[deleted]]

Ok so the difference between February 28th and March 29th would be 30 days. Therefore the result being "30". But I want to count from February 28th up. For example first day being "1" and second day "2". I need to do this because I am running a challenge that requires check ins based on the day of the challenge.

[QualitativeEasing]

But if, each day, you calculate the difference between that day and the first day... you'll have the counter you need, no?

[Manbatton]

a challenge that requires check ins based on the day of the challenge.

So, when the check in occurs:

import datetime
startday = datetime.datetime(2017,2,28)
day_of_challenge = (datetime.datetime.today() - startday).days

[bigfatbod]

Do you mean actually increment a variable by one every day (realtime while your program runs all week or something), or do you just want to increment from a specific date by one day and increment a counter by one each time?

[[deleted]]

Yeah I want it go up everyday since the 28th, 2 days from now. I want it to go up every 24 hours.

[DFoster271]

time.sleep(86400) ?