OPS435 Python Assignment 1 2018 Fall

Overview

When making back up of data files or log files, it is a very common practice to name the backup directories and/or files based on the date the backup was done. In order to restore or locate the directory/file, we often need to find out the backup date from today's date.

The computation task for this assignment is to write a python program with appropriate functions which will take a date in the "YYYYMMDD" format and the number of day before or after the given date as the command line arguments, calculate and output to the standard output data channel the requested date which is the number of day before or after the given date in the same format.

Coding Standard

• PEP-8 -- Style Guide for writing Python Code

Command Line Argument to be supported

• Name your python script as a1_[student_id].py, where [student_id] is your Seneca email user name.
• Your python script must support two command line arguments: (1) any valid date in YYYYMMDD format, (2) number of days before or after the given date.
• If there are less or more than two command line arguments given on the command line, your script should display the correct usage message and exit.

Required Functions

You must at least have the the following three functions defined in your python script:

• dbda()
• tomorrow()
• yesterday()

You can also create additional functions to improved the re-usability of your python code by adding the following functions:

• leapyear()
• validdate()
• usage()

Documentation

• Please use python's docstring to document your python script and each of the functions you created for this assignment.
• The following shows the docstring that was added to the tomorrow() function which provides the following information when call with help(tomorrow) in the python interactive shell:

Help on function tomorrow in module rchan:

tomorrow(today) -> str
    tomorrow() takes a valid date string in 'YYYYMMDD' format and return a 
    date string for the next day in 'YYYYMMDD' format.
    e.g. tomorrow('20171231') -> '20180101'
         tomorrow('20180131') -> '20180201'
         tomorrow('20180228') -> '20180301'
(END)

Due Date

This Assignment is due on Sunday October 14, 2018. Submit on blackboard under the assignments section.

All your Python code for this program must be placed in a single source file. Please include the following declaration by you as a comment in your Python source code file (replace "Student Name" with your own name):

OPS435 Assignment 1 - Fall 2018
Program: [student_id].py (replace student_id with your Seneca User name)
Author: "Student Name"
The python code in this file ([Student_id].py) is original work written by
"Student Name". No code in this file is copied from any other source 
except those provided by the course instructor, including any person, textbook, 
or on-line resource. I have not shared this python program with anyone or 
anything except for submission for grading.  
I understand that the Academic Honesty Policy will be enforced and violators 
will be reported and appropriate action will be taken.

Instruction

Program Name and valid command line arguments

Name your python3 program as [Student_id].py. The following examples assumes that the student_id is rchan.The program should accept two command line parameters, the first one is the date in "YYYYMMDD" format, and the second one is the number of day from the given date, a positive value indicates the number of days after the given date, and a negative value indicates the number of days before the given date. There is an option called --step that makes the program print out all dates until the final date. If the "YYYYMMDD" format is broken give an appropriate error message. Invalid months (>12) or invalid days of month(different for each month), should be detected and give appropriate error messages. For examples:

• python3 rchan.py 20180101 1, and the output should be
  

    20180102

• python3 rchan.py 20180101 -1, and the output should be
  

    20171231

• python3 rchan.py 20180101 2, and the output should be
  

    20180103

• python3 rchan.py --step 20180101 3, and the output should be
  

    20180102
    20180103
    20180104

• python3 rchan.py 20180701 500, and the output should be
  

    20191113

• python3 rchan.py 20189901 2, and the output should be
  

    Error: wrong month entered

• python3 rchan.py 20180199 2, and the output should be
  

    Error: wrong day entered

• python3 rchan.py 2018 2, and the output should be
  

    Error: wrong date entered

If there is too few or too many command line parameters given, display the proper usage.

Program structure

Your program code should all be in a single python file with at least the functions mentioned above: leapyear(), main(), tomorrow(), validdate(), yesterday():

• The leapyear() function will take a year in "YYYY" format, and return True if the given year is a leap year, otherwise return False.
• The main() function will take a date in "YYYYMMDD" format, a positive or negative integer, and return a date either before or after the given date according to the value of the given integer in the same format.
• The validdate() function will take a date in "YYYYMMDD" format, and return True if the given date is a valid date, otherwise return False.
• The yesterday() function will take a date in "YYYYMMDD" format and return the date of the previous day in the same format.

• The tomorrow() function will take a date in "YYYYMMDD" format and return the date of the next day in the same format. Next paragraph is a sample python code for the tomorrow() function.

     #!/usr/sbin/env python3
     import ...

     def tomorrow(today):
        ....
        return next_day

     def yesterday(today):
        ....
        return previous_day

     ....

     if __name__ == __main__:

     .. processing command line arguments ..
     .. set loop based on the number of days given
     .. call tomorrow() or yesterday() as appropriate
     ...
     output the expected date

Sample code for the tomorrow() function

# Return the date in YYYYMMDD after the given day
# 
def tomorrow(today):
    if len(today) != 8:
       return '00000000'
    else:
       year = int(today[0:4])
       month = int(today[4:6])
       day = int(today[6:])

       lyear = year % 4
       if lyear == 0:
          feb_max = 29 # this is a leap year
       else:
          feb_max = 28 # this is not a leap year

       lyear = year % 100
       if lyear == 0:
          feb_max = 28 # this is not a leap year

       lyear = year % 400
       if lyear == 0:
          feb_max = 29 # this is a leap year

       tmp_day = day + 1 # tomorrow's day

       mon_max = { 1:31, 2:feb_max, 3:31, 4:30, 5:31, 6:30, 7:31, 8:31, 9:30, 10:31, 11:30, 12:31}
       if tmp_day > mon_max[month]:
          to_day = tmp_day % mon_max[month] # if tmp_day > this month's max, reset to 1
          tmp_month = month + 1
       else:
          to_day = tmp_day
          tmp_month = month + 0

       if tmp_month > 12:
           to_month = 1
           year = year + 1
       else:
           to_month = tmp_month + 0

       next_date = str(year)+str(to_month).zfill(2)+str(to_day).zfill(2)
     
       return next_date