Copy files with their creation date in a specific range

Question

'''I am currently trying to copy files from one folder to another folder using shutil but I can't seem to get it to work, the process is saying it has finished but nothing happens?'''

The current criteria I have added raw_input that lets the user choose file extension. The next criteria I am looking to add is a date range function so I can choose a date range for example: 17/07/2020 to 04/08/2020 or the day's date.

*UPDATED CODE

import os
import shutil
import os.path, time
from pip._vendor.distlib.compat import raw_input

os.chdir('C://')
src = ("C:/Users/eldri/OneDrive/Desktop/")
dst = ("C:/Users/eldri/OneDrive/Desktop/output")
ext = raw_input("[+] File format: ")
created = (" last modified: %s" % time.ctime(os.path.getmtime(src)))
start = raw_input("[+] Date start: ")
end = raw_input("[+] Date end: ")

def date_to_num(date):
    return int("".join(date.split('/')[::-1]))

def date_in_range(date, start, end):
    return date_to_num(date) > date_to_num(start) and date_to_num(date) < date_to_num(end)

for filename in os.listdir(src):
    if filename.endswith('.'+ext) and created.startswith(start) and created.endswith(end):
        shutil.copy( src + filename, dst)
        print("[+] File transferred "+filename + created)
    else:
        print("[+] File not transferred "+filename + created)
        
print("[+] Transfer complete")

I was looking at maybe pandas? but not sure as still quite new to python.

example on terminal
file extension = .csv
startdate = 12/05/2020
enddate = 07/08/2020

once the user has input these fields it would copy only the required files over.

The current output of the created files are:

[+] File transferred BASE1011.xls last modified: Fri Jul 17 10:11:40 2020
[+] File transferred BASE1112.xls last modified: Fri Jul 17 10:11:40 2020
[+] File transferred BASE1213.xls last modified: Fri Jul 17 10:11:40 2020
[+] File transferred BASE1314.xls last modified: Fri Jul 17 10:11:40 2020
[+] File transferred BASE1415.xls last modified: Fri Jul 17 10:11:40 2020

I want these to be in an easier format for user input as explained above: example: start 12/05/2020 end date = 07/08/2020

Thank you for your help, I am not the best at python but I am trying to learn so any help would be amazing.

Thanks

Answer 1

For specific range you can:

create a function that parse the date to a number:

def date_to_num(date):
    return int("".join(date.split('/')[::-1]))

def date_in_range(date, start, end):
    return date_to_num(date) > date_to_num(start) and date_to_num(date) < date_to_num(end)

And then use it like that:

date_in_range("03/02/2020", "01/01/2020", "05/05/2020")

Answer 2

I've carried on your work using time.ctime(os.path.getmtime(src)) and created a function dateRange(createdDate, startDate, endDate) that uses datetime to convert the strings into datetime objects and returns True or False if the created date falls between start and end dates

import os
import shutil
import time
from datetime import datetime

src = "C:/Users/eldri/OneDrive/Desktop/"
dst = "C:/Users/eldri/OneDrive/Desktop/output"
ext = input("[+] File format: ")  # "txt"
start = input("[+] Date start: ")  # "01/07/2020"
end = input("[+] Date end: ")  # "30/07/2020"


def dateRange(createdDate, startDate, endDate):
    """determines if date is in range"""
    createdDate = datetime.strptime(createdDate, '%a %b %d %H:%M:%S %Y')
    startDate = datetime.strptime(startDate, '%d/%m/%Y')
    endDate = datetime.strptime(endDate, '%d/%m/%Y')
    return startDate < createdDate < endDate


for filename in os.listdir(src):
    created = time.ctime(os.path.getmtime(src + filename))
    if filename.endswith('.' + ext) and dateRange(created, start, end):
        shutil.copy(src + filename, dst)
        print("[+] File transferred " + filename + created)
    else:
        print("[+] File not transferred " + filename + created)

print("[+] Transfer complete")

I've added examples at the end of the ext, start, and end variables to provide an idea of the format