scrapinghub / scrapinghub/dateparser

Weekdays are handled inconsistently

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Python
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Description

I checked other issues, but this exact problem was not mentioned.

For context: I am in time zone CST, so in UTC it is already 2023-11-07, which may be the reason for the issue (just a wild guess).

Problem: Today's and tomorrow's weekday name are returning today's and tomorrow's dates. Any other weekday returns a date in the past:

>>> parse("now")
datetime.datetime(2023, 11, 6, 20, 15, 31, 568142)
>>> parse("Monday")
datetime.datetime(2023, 11, 6, 0, 0)
>>> parse("Tuesday")
datetime.datetime(2023, 11, 7, 0, 0)
>>> parse("Wednesday")
datetime.datetime(2023, 11, 1, 0, 0)
>>> parse("Thursday")
datetime.datetime(2023, 11, 2, 0, 0)
>>> parse("Friday")
datetime.datetime(2023, 11, 3, 0, 0)
>>> parse("Saturday")
datetime.datetime(2023, 11, 4, 0, 0)
>>> parse("Sunday")
datetime.datetime(2023, 11, 5, 0, 0)

With settings={"PREFER_DATES_FROM": "future"}, Tuesday (i.e., tomorrow) is not recognised as in the future:

>> parse("Monday", settings={"PREFER_DATES_FROM": "future"})
datetime.datetime(2023, 11, 13, 0, 0)
>>> parse("Tuesday", settings={"PREFER_DATES_FROM": "future"})
datetime.datetime(2023, 11, 14, 0, 0)
>>> parse("Wednesday", settings={"PREFER_DATES_FROM": "future"})
datetime.datetime(2023, 11, 8, 0, 0)
>>> parse("Thursday", settings={"PREFER_DATES_FROM": "future"})
datetime.datetime(2023, 11, 9, 0, 0)
>>> parse("Friday", settings={"PREFER_DATES_FROM": "future"})
datetime.datetime(2023, 11, 10, 0, 0)
>>> parse("Saturday", settings={"PREFER_DATES_FROM": "future"})
datetime.datetime(2023, 11, 11, 0, 0)
>>> parse("Sunday", settings={"PREFER_DATES_FROM": "future"})
datetime.datetime(2023, 11, 12, 0, 0)
>>> parse("Sunday", settings={"PREFER_DATES_FROM": "future"})
datetime.datetime(2023, 11, 12, 0, 0)

With settings={"PREFER_DATES_FROM": "past"}, today (Monday) is not recognised as "not past", I am not sure if this is the wanted behaviour, I just mention it for completeness:

>>> parse("Monday", settings={"PREFER_DATES_FROM": "past"})
datetime.datetime(2023, 11, 6, 0, 0)
>>> parse("Tuesday", settings={"PREFER_DATES_FROM": "past"})
datetime.datetime(2023, 10, 31, 0, 0)
>>> parse("Wednesday", settings={"PREFER_DATES_FROM": "past"})
datetime.datetime(2023, 11, 1, 0, 0)
>>> parse("Thursday", settings={"PREFER_DATES_FROM": "past"})
datetime.datetime(2023, 11, 2, 0, 0)
>>> parse("Friday", settings={"PREFER_DATES_FROM": "past"})
datetime.datetime(2023, 11, 3, 0, 0)
>>> parse("Saturday", settings={"PREFER_DATES_FROM": "past"})
datetime.datetime(2023, 11, 4, 0, 0)
>>> parse("Sunday", settings={"PREFER_DATES_FROM": "past"})
datetime.datetime(2023, 11, 5, 0, 0)

Contributor guide

Open the contributing guide

First steps

  1. Read the whole issue, then the project's contributing guide.
  2. Comment on the issue to say you are picking it up — it saves two people doing the same work.
  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 reproducing the weekday examples with the default, future, and past PREFER_DATES_FROM settings, then trace the parser's weekday and relative-date handling. Done means weekday names are interpreted consistently around today and tomorrow, with behavior matching the selected date preference.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Assessment

Tech stack
python
Domain
backend
Issue type
Bug
Difficulty
3/5
Estimated time
1-2 days
Activity status
Stale
Clarity
Mostly clear
Newbie friendliness
38/100

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