5 Best Ways to Use the Python Holidays Library

๐Ÿ’ก Problem Formulation: Handling holidays can be complex when developing applications that rely on date calculations. The Python Holidays library simplifies this task by providing an easy way to generate lists of holidays for a given country, region, or state. For example, you may need to verify if a specific date is a public holiday or generate a list of upcoming holidays for scheduling events. This article demonstrates five effective ways to utilize the Python Holidays library for such purposes.

Method 1: Checking If a Specific Date is a Holiday

Before scheduling an event or a meeting, itโ€™s prudent to check if the chosen date coincides with a holiday. The Python Holidays library can be used to check if a particular date is a holiday. By creating an instance of the Holidays class for the required country, you can easily check for holidays by passing a date object.

Here’s an example:

import holidays
from datetime import date

us_holidays = holidays.UnitedStates()
chosen_date = date(2023, 7, 4)

if chosen_date in us_holidays:
    print("It's a holiday!", us_holidays.get(chosen_date))
else:
    print("It's not a holiday.")

Output:

It's a holiday! Independence Day

This snippet first imports the necessary modules, creates a holidays.UnitedStates() object, and checks if July 4, 2023, is a holiday. Since it’s Independence Day in the US, the script confirms that the date is a holiday and prints the holidayโ€™s name.

Method 2: Finding Out the Upcoming Holidays

Planning ahead is critical, especially when it involves public holidays that may affect business operations. The Python Holidays library allows users to look forward to see what holidays are approaching by providing the start and end dates for the period of interest.

Here’s an example:

import holidays

for date, name in sorted(holidays.US(years=2023).items()):
    print(date, name)

Output:

2023-01-01 New Year's Day
...
2023-12-25 Christmas Day

This code lists all the holidays in the United States for the year 2023. The holidays.US() class takes a years parameter, and the items() method is used to iterate over the holiday date-name pairs.

Method 3: Customizing Holiday Lists

In some instances, you may want to customize the holiday list by adding or removing specific holidays. This is useful for businesses that observe different holidays than the standard ones. The Holidays library allows you to create a custom holiday list by subclassing the base country class.

Here’s an example:

import holidays

class CustomHolidays(holidays.UnitedStates):
    def _populate(self, year):
        super()._populate(year)
        self[date(year, 4, 1)] = "April Fools' Day"  # Add custom holiday

custom_holidays = CustomHolidays()
print(custom_holidays.get(date(2023, 4, 1)))

Output:

April Fools' Day

In this code snippet, a custom holiday class CustomHolidays is created, inheriting from holidays.UnitedStates. A new holiday is added to the list by overriding the _populate method. The new list includes “April Fools’ Day” which is not a recognized public holiday.

Method 4: Supporting Different Locales

Python Holidays library supports a wide variety of locales. If your application caters to an international audience, itโ€™s essential to consider diverse holiday lists. Instantiating the Holidays class with different countries can retrieve holidays specific to each locale.

Here’s an example:

import holidays

us_holidays = holidays.US()
mx_holidays = holidays.Mexico()

print("US:", us_holidays.get(date(2023, 5, 5)))
print("Mexico:", mx_holidays.get(date(2023, 5, 5)))

Output:

US: None
Mexico: Batalla de Puebla

The example above creates two holiday instances: one for the United States and another for Mexico. It then checks the holiday on May 5, 2023. While this date is not a holiday in the US, it corresponds to the “Batalla de Puebla” in Mexico.

Bonus One-Liner Method 5: Getting the Name of Todayโ€™s Holiday

There might be scenarios where you want to find out quickly if today is a holiday without writing excessive code. Python Holidays library provides a straightforward one-liner for such use cases.

Here’s an example:

import holidays
from datetime import date

print(holidays.US().get(date.today(), 'No holidays today'))

Output:

No holidays today

This one-liner checks if today is a holiday in the US. If today is not a holiday, it prints “No holidays today.” If it is a holiday, it would print the holiday’s name instead.

Summary/Discussion

  • Method 1: Checking If a Specific Date is a Holiday. Strengths: Direct and straightforward. Weaknesses: Only checks one date at a time.
  • Method 2: Finding Out the Upcoming Holidays. Strengths: Allows planning and foresight for an entire year. Weaknesses: Can be overwhelming with too much information at once.
  • Method 3: Customizing Holiday Lists. Strengths: Personalized to specific business needs. Weaknesses: Requires additional coding and maintenance.
  • Method 4: Supporting Different Locales. Strengths: Useful for international user bases. Weaknesses: Must manage multiple holiday lists.
  • Method 5: Getting the Name of Todayโ€™s Holiday. Strengths: Quick and easy. Weaknesses: Does not provide any context or additional information about the holiday.