python - calculate the difference between two datetime.date() dates in years and months

Question

I want to calculate the difference between two datetime.date() dates in years and months.

For example;

d1 = date(2001,5,1)  
d2 = date(2012,1,1)   
d3 = date(2001,1,1)   
d4 = date(2012,5,1)   


diff1 = d2 - d1  
diff2 = d4 - d3

Desired result:

diff1 == 10 years & 8 months. 
diff2 == 11 years & 4 months.

Thanks.

Answer 1

If you are able to install the excellent dateutil package, you can do this:

>>> from dateutil import relativedelta as rdelta
>>> from datetime import date
>>> d1 = date(2001,5,1)
>>> d2 = date(2012,1,1)
>>> rd = rdelta.relativedelta(d2,d1)
>>> "{0.years} years and {0.months} months".format(rd)
'10 years and 8 months'