How to substract 5 years from a date in python

Question

I have a list with date, I want to substract 5 years from it.

I have tried the below code but it's not working.

import datetime
from dateutil.relativedelta import relativedelta
s = ["2018-06-19"]
print(datetime.datetime.strptime(s[0], '%Y-%m-%d').strftime('%Y-%m-%d')-relativedelta(years=5))

What am i doing wrong?

You can look at this answer as I think this will solve your problem :https://stackoverflow.com/questions/765797/python-timedelta-in-years. If this URL is useful, please close your question as it is a duplicate. — Saurav Panda, Jul 16 '20 at 15:35
Why do you turn it back into a string *before* trying to subtract from it? — jonrsharpe, Jul 16 '20 at 15:35
You're immediately converting your `datetime` object back into a string, and *then* trying to subtract the `relativedelta` object from it. You need to do the subtraction before the `.strftime()`. — jasonharper, Jul 16 '20 at 15:36

score 1 · Accepted Answer · answered Jul 16 '20 at 15:36

.strftime('%Y-%m-%d')

Returns a string, thus is cannot be substracted with a relativedelta. Datetime objects can be substracted. Hence, convert your date to string after you do the substraction

print((datetime.datetime.strptime(s[0], '%Y-%m-%d')-relativedelta(years=5)).strftime('%Y-%m-%d'))

How to substract 5 years from a date in python

1 Answers1