Feature request: Report smallest interval of parsed string

[Tim Cera]

I need the smallest date interval that is in the parsed string.

For example, currently:

In [1]: import dateutil.parser as ps

In [2]: ps.parse('5/18/1964')
Out[2]: datetime.datetime(1964, 5, 18, 0, 0)

In [3]: ps.parse('5/18/1964 00:00')
Out[3]: datetime.datetime(1964, 5, 18, 0, 0)

I need to know how detailed the string is. The datetime doesn't tell me since parsing both strings results in hour = 0 and minute = 0.

Perhaps something like

ps.functionname('5/18/1964')
'Day'

ps.functionname('5/18/1964 00:00')
'Second'

ps.functionname('1964')
'Year'

...etc.

Started looking at the code to see where I could fit this in, but thought it best to post the feature request since it might be a very easy thing to do for someone who is already familiar with the code.

It would be nice for the reported interval to be consistent with pytseries.sf.net.

Kindest regards,
Tim

[Tim Cera (timcera)]

Can't edit the bug report, but as I submitted found that one of my examples is incorrect.

The following:

ps.functionname('5/18/1964 00:00')
'Second'

Should be:

ps.functionname('5/18/1964 00:00')
'Minute'

[Tim Cera (timcera)]

Well, here is a patch that implements an 'interval_precision' function. Probably not the best implementation wise in terms of the Don't Repeat Yourself in that I just copied a portion of the 'parse' function instead of working out something else, but it works.

Kindest regards,
Tim