[Tutor] Copy Files, Dates

[Alan Gauld]

> How do you copy files using Python?

Finding the right module is one of the hardest bits of learning
Python...
The one you need here is called shutil - obviously! :-)!

> First I need to find out if a string is a Date. Is there any IsDate
like
> function?

There is a string convertion function in the python time module.

You might want to use try/except to catch errors:

try: # convert the string
except: print 'oops! not a date'

There is also an addin mxDate module which gets good reviews,
it might have something.

> Also, is there a module that compares dates?

The basic time module lets you convert a date into a numeric value.
You can then compare the numbers, subract them to get the difference
etc.

HTH

Alan G
Author of the Learn to Program web tutor
http://www.freenetpages.co.uk/hp/alan.gauld