python - Add months to a date in Pandas

Question

I'm trying to figure out how to add 3 months to a date in a Pandas dataframe, while keeping it in the date format, so I can use it to lookup a range.

This is what I've tried:

#create dataframe
df = pd.DataFrame([pd.Timestamp('20161011'),
                   pd.Timestamp('20161101') ], columns=['date'])

#create a future month period
plus_month_period = 3

#calculate date + future period
df['future_date'] = plus_month_period.astype("timedelta64[M]")

However, I get the following error:

AttributeError: 'int' object has no attribute 'astype'

Answer 1

You could use pd.DateOffset

In [1756]: df.date + pd.DateOffset(months=plus_month_period)
Out[1756]:
0   2017-01-11
1   2017-02-01
Name: date, dtype: datetime64[ns]

Another way using pd.offsets.MonthOffset

In [1785]: df.date + pd.offsets.MonthOffset(plus_month_period)
Out[1785]:
0   2016-10-14
1   2016-11-04
Name: date, dtype: datetime64[ns]

---

Details

In [1757]: df
Out[1757]:
        date
0 2016-10-11
1 2016-11-01

In [1758]: plus_month_period
Out[1758]: 3