I found that working with dates in python can be quite a hurdle. But pandas always comes through. I discovered the pd.offsets module and it has been a smooth ride looking to go back and forward in time.

There are several useful classes for different purposes ie:

Getting the last day month from a given date (Monthend)

Syntax: date + pd.offsets.MonthEnd(n)
where:

  • date refers to any datetime object
  • n can refer to number of steps. And also takes + or - for eg:
    • '2021-01-23'+ pd.offsets.MonthEnd(+2) returns the last day of the March 2021
    • '2021-01-23'+ pd.offsets.MonthEnd(12) returns the last day of the November 2020

Getting the last day week from a given date (Week)

This above approach also applies to getting the last day of either the previous or future week, based on a given day.

Syntax: date + pd.offsets.Week(n)
where:

  • date refers to any datetime object
  • n works in the one above.

Going back or forward by days

Here we can also employ the pd.DateOffset()
Syntax: date - pd.DateOffset(days=1)
Other parameters that can be used to replace the offset value are:

  • year
  • month
  • weekday
  • hour
  • minute


Sources: