Usage and examples
Basic usage
>>> import radar
>>> radar.random_datetime()
datetime.datetime(2013, 5, 24, 16, 54, 52)
Specify date range
You may pass
datetime.datetime
or
datetime.date
objects:
>>> import datetime
>>> import radar
>>> radar.random_date(
>>> start = datetime.datetime(year=2000, month=5, day=24),
>>> stop = datetime.datetime(year=2013, month=5, day=24)
>>> )
datetime.date(2012, 12, 31)
You may also pass strings:
>>> radar.random_datetime(start='2012-05-24T00:00:00', stop='2013-05-24T23:59:59')
datetime.datetime(2013, 4, 18, 17, 54, 6)
Generate random time
>>> radar.random_time(start='2012-01-01T00:00:00', stop='2012-01-01T23:59:59')
datetime.time(11, 33, 59)
Advanced usage
When strings are passed, by default
radar
uses
python-dateutil
package to parse dates. Date parser of the
dateutil
package is quite heavy, althogh is extremely smart. As an alternative,
radar
comes with own parser
radar.utils.parse
, which is much lighter (about 5 times faster compared to
dateutil
).
Using built-in parser:
>>> radar.random_datetime(start='2012-05-24T00:00:00', stop='2013-05-24T23:59:59', parse=radar.utils.parse)
datetime.datetime(2012, 11, 10, 15, 43, 40)
Built-in parser parses the dates using formats specified in
radar.defaults.FORMATS
:
>>> start = radar.utils.parse('2012-01-01')
datetime.datetime(2012, 1, 1, 0, 0)
>>> stop = radar.utils.parse('2013-01-01')
datetime.datetime(2013, 1, 1, 0, 0)
If you want to add more formats, define your own formats and feed them to built-in parser:
>>> MY_FORMATS = (
>>> ("%d-%m-%YT%H:%M:%S", True),
>>> ("%d-%m-%Y", False)
>>> )
>>>
>>> def my_parse(timestamp):
>>> return radar.utils.parse(timestamp, formats=MY_FORMATS)
>>>
>>> radar.random_datetime(start='24-05-2012T00:00:00', stop='24-05-2013T23:59:59', parse=my_parse)
datetime.datetime(2012, 11, 10, 15, 43, 40)
General notes
If you expect to have really weird date formats when generating random dates from strings, you might want to consider
installing wonderful
python-dateutil
package.
When generating thousands of objects (using
dateutil
or built-in parser), you’re advised to pass date ranges as
datetime.datetime
or
datetime.date
objects, rather than passing strings (parsing costs time).
A good example:
>>> start = radar.utils.parse('2000-01-01')
>>> stop = radar.utils.parse('2013-12-31')
>>> for i in xrange(1000000):
>>> radar.random_datetime(start=start, stop=stop)
See
https://bitbucket.org/barseghyanartur/radar/src
(example) directory for benchmarks and more examples.
