python-humanize / python-humanize/humanize

Accept ISO 8601 string, in addition to datetime/date/time object

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Dominant language
Python
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Description

Motivation:

I believe that the humanize functions are often used indrectly from template engines. In my case I use Jinja2 templating engine and the jinja2_humanize_extension, which relies on the humanize package.

{{ value | humanize_naturaldate }}

In many cases the underlying data (either a database, json-file or csv-file) stores/returns the datetime (or date or time) as a string, formatted in ISO8601 format. But in order to make humanize_naturaldate accept this, I need to first parse it.

{{ value | fromisoformat | humanize_naturaldate }}

The fromisoformat then needs to be set as a filter in the local or global jinja environment.

It would be great if humanize accepted these ISO8661 strings itself.

How to implement:

As far as I can tell, it would be very simple to implement and very simple to maintain. Every function callable by the client, that takes a datetime should start with:

if type(value) == str:
    try:
        value = datetime.datetime.fromisoformat(value)
    else:
        value = str

Similarly for date and time objects.

I will admit that I have only studied the code cursorily, and I might have missed some reasons why this is more complex than I currently believe it is.

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First steps

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  3. Fork the repository and make your change on a branch.
  4. Open a pull request that references the issue number.

Research direction

Start by locating the public humanize functions that accept datetime, date, or time values, including humanize_naturaldate, and review their current input handling. Check how existing tests cover these entry points. Done means supported ISO 8601 strings are accepted consistently while existing object inputs and invalid values retain defined behavior.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Assessment

Tech stack
python
Domain
backend
Issue type
Feature
Difficulty
4/5
Estimated time
3-5 days
Activity status
Stale
Clarity
Mostly clear
Newbie friendliness
42/100

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