Python: Get list of previous 12 months from number int

Question

If I have a month integer like 6, how can I get the names of the previous 12 months? So passing in 6 would give me a list like

['June','May','April','March','February','January','December','November','October','September','August','July']

Looks like you should be able to start with a list of the months in reverse, and then [rotate it](https://stackoverflow.com/questions/9457832/python-list-rotation) by the correct number. — Patrick Haugh, Sep 10 '18 at 13:51

score 2 · Accepted Answer · answered Sep 10 '18 at 14:10

m =['January', 'February', 'March', 'April', 'May', 'June', 'July','August', 'September', 'October', 'November', 'December']
pos = 6 # current month is June
for i in range(pos,pos-12,-1):
    print(m[i-1]) # in real m[pos] == July . so m[pos-1] == June

score 1 · Answer 2 · answered Nov 20 '19 at 16:52

I know it has been answered but I think there a moret pythonic way using calendar module

import calendar

current = 11
last_12_months = [calendar.month_name[1:][i] for i in range(current - 12, current)] # starting from the last
reverse_last_12_months = reversed(last_12_months) # starting from the current

score 0 · Answer 3 · answered Sep 10 '18 at 14:03

You can use itertools.cycle, skipping the x previous and returning the 12 next from a reversed months list:

import itertools

def get_month_from_int(i):
  reverse_months = itertools.cycle([
  'December','November','October','September','August','July', 'June','May','April', 'March','February','January'
  ])
  for _ in range(i):
    next(reverse_months)
  return [next(reverse_months) for _ in range(12)]

Here you have the live example

Python: Get list of previous 12 months from number int

3 Answers3