# How do I parse the string "29 February" into a date structure

**URL:** <https://discourse.julialang.org/t/how-do-i-parse-the-string-29-february-into-a-date-structure/41411>\
**Category:** New to Julia\
**Created:** [June 14, 2020, 10:03pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/how-do-i-parse-the-string-29-february-into-a-date-structure/41411 "2020-06-14T22:03:51Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![StevenSiew](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/stevensiew/32/218393_2.png) [@StevenSiew](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/StevenSiew)\
**Post date:** [June 14, 2020, 10:03pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/how-do-i-parse-the-string-29-february-into-a-date-structure/41411/1 "2020-06-14T22:03:51Z")

</div>

```julia
using Dates
julia> format = Dates.DateFormat("d U")
dateformat"d U"

julia> parse(Date,"28 February",format) + Dates.Year(2020-1)
2020-02-28

julia> parse(Date,"29 February",format) + Dates.Year(2020-1)
ERROR: ArgumentError: Day: 29 out of range (1:28)
Stacktrace:
 [1] Date(::Int64, ::Int64, ::Int64) at /Users/julia/buildbot/worker/package_macos64/build/usr/share/julia/stdlib/v1.4/Dates/src/types.jl:223
 [2] parse(::Type{Date}, ::String, ::DateFormat{Symbol("d U"),Tuple{Dates.DatePart{'d'},Dates.Delim{Char,1},Dates.DatePart{'U'}}}) at /Users/julia/buildbot/worker/package_macos64/build/usr/share/julia/stdlib/v1.4/Dates/src/parse.jl:285
 [3] top-level scope at none:0

```

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Palli](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/palli/32/3380_2.png) [@Palli](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/Palli)\
**Post date:** [June 14, 2020, 10:26pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/how-do-i-parse-the-string-29-february-into-a-date-structure/41411/2 "2020-06-14T22:26:46Z")

</div>

E.g. (but less simple to allow both formats at once (with or w/o comma), not sure how without some exception-handling logic):

```julia
julia> parse(Date,"29 February 2020", Dates.DateFormat("d U Y"))
2020-02-29

julia> parse(Date,"February 29, 2020", Dates.DateFormat("U d, Y"))
2020-02-29

```

The leap-year day isn’t valid every year (only approximately, not exactly, every 4 years), so your error seems intentional by the Dates module author and thus you must do similar to above. For e.g. 2019 shouldn’t work, as for your Dates.Year(2020-1) example, nor for a legal year.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![anon37204545](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/439d5e/32.png) [@anon37204545](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/anon37204545)\
**Post date:** [June 14, 2020, 10:37pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/how-do-i-parse-the-string-29-february-into-a-date-structure/41411/3 "2020-06-14T22:37:47Z")

</div>

I believe this is intended behavior.

The error is in the statement `parse(Date, "29 February", format)`. When you don’t specify the year, it is defaulted to 1 CE. And as far as my memory goes, that year wasn’t a leap year. 🙂

```julia
julia> parse(Date, "28 February", format)
0001-02-28

julia> parse(Date, "29 February", format)
ERROR: ArgumentError: Day: 29 out of range (1:28)

```

But:

```julia
julia> parse(Date, "29 February 0", dateformat"d U Y")
0000-02-29
julia> parse(Date, "29 February 0", dateformat"d U Y") + Dates.Year(2020)
2020-02-29

```

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![StevenSiew](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/stevensiew/32/218393_2.png) [@StevenSiew](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/StevenSiew)\
**Post date:** [June 15, 2020, 10:16am UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/how-do-i-parse-the-string-29-february-into-a-date-structure/41411/4 "2020-06-15T10:16:57Z")

</div>

```julia
function clean_date_string(s,DefaultYear=2020)
    format = Dates.DateFormat("d U Y")
    date = Date(2000,1,1)
    try
        date = parse(Date,s * " 2000",format) + Dates.Year(DefaultYear - 2000)
    catch
        println("Error: in function clean_date_string")
        println("Error: Unable to parse <$s>")
        flush(stdout)
        exit(0)
    end
    return Dates.format(date,"YYYY-mm-dd")
end

```

I end up with this solution which allows the input string “29 February”