Advanced Calendar Functionalities in Python

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The calendar module in Python isn’t limited to displaying month and year calendars; it also offers advanced functionalities to customize and manipulate calendar data. In this blog, we’ll dive into some advanced features and how to implement them in Python.

1. Customizing the First Day of the Week

By default, the calendar module considers Monday as the first day of the week. You can change this to any other day, such as Sunday.

Code Example:

import calendar

# Set Sunday as the first day of the week
calendar.setfirstweekday(calendar.SUNDAY)

# Display the calendar for December 2024
print(calendar.month(2024, 12))

Output:

   December 2024
Su Mo Tu We Th Fr Sa
 1  2  3  4  5  6  7
 8  9 10 11 12 13 14
15 16 17 18 19 20 21
22 23 24 25 26 27 28
29 30 31

2. Highlighting Specific Dates

If you need to mark specific dates (e.g., holidays or events), you can overlay these dates on a generated calendar. Let’s create a custom function for this.

Code Example:

import calendar

def highlight_dates(year, month, highlights):
    cal = calendar.TextCalendar()
    month_calendar = cal.formatmonth(year, month).split("\n")
    
    # Highlight specified dates
    for i, line in enumerate(month_calendar):
        for day in highlights:
            if f"{day:2}" in line:  # Match the day with padding
                month_calendar[i] = line.replace(f"{day:2}", f"[{day:2}]")
    
    return "\n".join(month_calendar)

# Example usage
year = 2024
month = 12
highlights = [25, 31]  # Christmas and New Year's Eve
print(highlight_dates(year, month, highlights))

Output:

   December 2024
Mo Tu We Th Fr Sa Su
                   1
 2  3  4  5  6  7  8
 9 10 11 12 13 14 15
16 17 18 19 20 21 22
23 24 [25] 26 27 28 29
30 [31]

3. Generate a Calendar in HTML

The HTMLCalendar class generates calendars in HTML format, which is useful for web applications.

Code Example:

from calendar import HTMLCalendar

# Create an HTMLCalendar object
cal = HTMLCalendar()

# Generate HTML for December 2024
html_calendar = cal.formatmonth(2024, 12)

# Save the HTML to a file
with open("calendar.html", "w") as file:
    file.write(html_calendar)

print("HTML calendar generated successfully!")

Output Preview:

When you open calendar.html in a browser, it will display the calendar styled in HTML.

4. Finding Leap Years

You can easily check if a given year is a leap year using calendar.isleap().

Code Example:

import calendar

# Check if a year is a leap year
year = 2024
if calendar.isleap(year):
    print(f"{year} is a leap year.")
else:
    print(f"{year} is not a leap year.")

Output:

2024 is a leap year.

5. Calculating the Number of Leap Years

You can count the number of leap years in a range using calendar.leapdays().

Code Example:

import calendar

# Count leap years between two years
start_year = 2000
end_year = 2024
leap_years = calendar.leapdays(start_year, end_year + 1)  # Include end_year
print(f"There are {leap_years} leap years between {start_year} and {end_year}.")

Output:

There are 7 leap years between 2000 and 2024.

6. Get Day of the Week

You can find the day of the week for any date using calendar.weekday().

Code Example:

import calendar

# Get the day of the week for a specific date
year = 2024
month = 12
day = 25

weekday = calendar.weekday(year, month, day)
days = ["Monday", "Tuesday", "Wednesday", "Thursday", "Friday", "Saturday", "Sunday"]
print(f"{year}-{month}-{day} falls on a {days[weekday]}.")

Output:

2024-12-25 falls on a Wednesday.

7. Create a Yearly Calendar

You can generate a full calendar for a year with formatyear().

Code Example:

import calendar

# Generate a text calendar for the year 2024
year = 2024
cal = calendar.TextCalendar()
print(cal.formatyear(year, 2, 1, 1, 3))  # Custom spacing

Output:

                              2024

      January               February               March
Mo Tu We Th Fr Sa Su  Mo Tu We Th Fr Sa Su  Mo Tu We Th Fr Sa Su
 1  2  3  4  5  6  7           1  2  3  4                  1  2
 8  9 10 11 12 13 14   5  6  7  8  9 10 11   4  5  6  7  8  9 10
15 16 17 18 19 20 21  12 13 14 15 16 17 18  11 12 13 14 15 16 17
...

8. Creating a Custom Calendar Class

You can subclass calendar.TextCalendar to build your own custom calendars with added functionalities.

Code Example:

import calendar

class CustomCalendar(calendar.TextCalendar):
    def formatmonth(self, year, month, with_year=True):
        result = super().formatmonth(year, month, with_year)
        return result.upper()  # Convert the calendar to uppercase

# Example usage
custom_cal = CustomCalendar()
print(custom_cal.formatmonth(2024, 12))

Output:

   DECEMBER 2024
MO TU WE TH FR SA SU
                   1
 2  3  4  5  6  7  8
 9 10 11 12 13 14 15
16 17 18 19 20 21 22
23 24 25 26 27 28 29
30 31

Conclusion

The calendar module in Python is versatile, offering functionalities from basic calendar display to advanced customizations like highlighting dates, generating HTML calendars, and calculating leap years. These features can be integrated into scheduling systems, event management tools, and other calendar-based applications.

Would you like to explore a specific feature or integrate these functionalities into a project? Let me know!

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