scrapinghub / scrapinghub/dateparser

Default date timezone not consistent

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Type: Bug
Dominant language
Python
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Merged PRs (30d)
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Description

When trying to parse time without date specified, returned date is inconsistent in different formats.

My computer date is set to: 2019.08.02 01:10 Timezone +2. It means that locally it is 2nd of August and in UTC it is 1st of August.

>>> dateparser.parse('10:10')
datetime.datetime(2019, 9, 1, 10, 10)
>>> dateparser.parse('today 10:10')
datetime.datetime(2019, 9, 2, 10, 10)

Notice that first parsed date have day in utc time and second in local time.

I believe local time zone should be used by default with option to pass timezone that user want to use.

Contributor guide

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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 two dateparser.parse examples in the issue under the stated local and UTC timezone conditions, then trace why parsing a time-only value and parsing “today” use different dates. Done means both formats apply a consistent default timezone, while still allowing callers to provide a timezone.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Assessment

Tech stack
python
Domain
backend
Issue type
Bug
Difficulty
4/5
Estimated time
3-5 days
Activity status
Stale
Clarity
Mostly clear
Newbie friendliness
35/100

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