python basics - I am trying to write a function which takes a string(a month) as an input and returns the amount of days in the month

Question

I am trying to write a function which takes a string(a month) as an input and returns the amount of days in the month, using a list like this below:

I put in the correction at the bottom, thanks for the help

month_days= [('January',[31]),('February',[28,29]),('March',[31]), ('April',[30]),('May',[31]),('June',[30]),('July',[31]),('August',[31]),('September',[30]),('October',[31]),    
('November',[30]),('December',[31]) ]


def month_day(mnth):
    for m, d in month_days:
        if m == mnth:
            return d

What about `month_days('February')`? Also, what's your code? — Niklas B., Apr 04 '12 at 19:51
Might be easier if you use a dictionary, rather than a list. Use the month name as the key. — cdarke, Apr 04 '12 at 19:55
If you show you attempt, you'll get answers that get you over the proverbial 'bump'. If you don't, this will probably be closed in 15 minutes. — Tim Post, Apr 04 '12 at 19:56
Must be homework; nobody in the real world types full month names into a computer ... — John Machin, Apr 04 '12 at 20:18

score 2 · Answer 1 · edited May 23 '17 at 11:59

This seems like it may be a homework assignment, but if it's not you can use the monthrange function in the calendar module (as described in this SO question):

>>> months = ['January','February','March','April','May','June', 'July','August','September','October','November','December']
>>> from calendar import monthrange
>>> for i in range(len(months)):
...     ind = i+1
...     print months[i], monthrange(2012,ind)[1] # returns a tuple, second element is number of days
... 
January 31
February 29
March 31
April 30
May 31
June 30
July 31
August 31
September 30
October 31
November 30
December 31

You may want to define the year dynamically since that determines whether it's a leap year or not, but otherwise this seems to give the data you want.

score 1 · Answer 2 · answered Apr 04 '12 at 20:09

1

Don't invent a bike. Just use the calendar module http://docs.python.org/library/calendar.html

answered Apr 04 '12 at 20:09

Maksym Polshcha

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score 0 · Answer 3 · answered Apr 04 '12 at 19:57

Here's a very basic way of traversing the list, finding the right month and returning the number of days. This is not a complete or optimal solution, just an example so you can build up on it.

month_days_list = [('January',[31]),('February',[28,29]),('March',[31]), ... ]
def month_days(month):
    for m, d in month_days_list:
        if m == month:
            return d[0]

You should do something about the months that have more than one option of days, instead of just returning d[0].

If you _had_ to do it this way, surely the neater option is ``return dict(month_days_list)[month][0]``. — Gareth Latty, Apr 04 '12 at 20:11

score 0 · Answer 4 · answered Apr 04 '12 at 21:02

FYI in general the simplest way to solve this type of problem (given a string print a constant) is with a dictionary:

month2days = { 'January': 31, 'February': 29, } ## and so on

print (month2days['January'])

will print 31

Using a list of tuples is not the best way.

python basics - I am trying to write a function which takes a string(a month) as an input and returns the amount of days in the month

4 Answers4