How do I check if one date is before or after another date using the Google Earth Engine Python API?
In other words, I want to compare two dates like datetime object in Python.
import ee
firstDate=ee.Date.fromYMD(2022,3,2)
lastDay=ee.Date.fromYMD(2022,4,1)
# Compare if firstDate >= lastDate
firstDate>=lastDate
Best Answer
Your dates are server-side objects, that's why your client-side comparison fails. One option could be to avoid the creation of server-side dates to begin with, and rely on Python
datetime
.Another option is to compare
ee.Date.millis()
:Note that while you could use
ee.Algorithms.If()
to do conditional logic based on these dates, it's something you should try to avoid.When you come to a point where you feel you need a conditional, you typically can restructure your code to avoid it. You might filter a list or collection, or do some arithmetic tricks using the fact that
firstDate.millis().gte(lastDay.millis())
returns0
or1
. It's all very context dependent.