Getting the closest date to a given date

Question

Given this base date:

base_date = "10/29 06:58 AM"

I want to find a tuple within the list that contains the closest date to the base_date, but it must not be an earlier date.

list_date = [('10/30 02:18 PM', '-103', '-107'), ('10/30 02:17 PM', '+100', '-110'), \
             ('10/29 02:15 AM', '-101', '-109') 

so here the output should be ('10/30 02:17 PM', '+100', '-110') (it can't be the 3rd tuple because the date there happened earlier than the base date)

My question is, does it exist any module for such date comparison? I tried to first change the data all to AM format and then compare but my code gets ugly with lots of slicing.

@edit:

Big list to test:

[('10/30 02:18 PM', '+13 -103', '-13 -107'), ('10/30 02:17 PM', '+13 +100', '-13 -110'), ('10/30 02:15 PM', '+13 -101', '-13 -109'), ('10/30 02:14 PM', '+13 -103', '-13 -107'), ('10/30 01:59 PM', '+13 -105', '-13 -105'), ('10/30 01:46 PM', '+13 -106', '-13 -104'), ('10/30 01:37 PM', '+13 -105', '-13 -105'), ('10/30 01:24 PM', '+13 -107', '-13 -103'), ('10/30 01:23 PM', '+13 -106', '-13 -104'), ('10/30 01:05 PM', '+13 -103', '-13 -107'), ('10/30 01:02 PM', '+13 -104', '-13 -106'), ('10/30 12:55 PM', '+13 -103', '-13 -107'), ('10/30 12:51 PM', '+13.5 -110', '-13.5 +100'), ('10/30 12:44 PM', '+13.5 -108', '-13.5 -102'), ('10/30 12:38 PM', '+13.5 -107', '-13.5 -103'), ('10/30 12:35 PM', '+13 -102', '-13 -108'), ('10/30 12:34 PM', '+13 -103', '-13 -107'), ('10/30 12:06 PM', '+13.5 -110', '-13.5 +100'), ('10/30 11:57 AM', '+13.5 -108', '-13.5 -102'), ('10/30 11:36 AM', '+13.5 -107', '-13.5 -103'), ('10/30 09:01 AM', '+13.5 -110', '-13.5 +100'), ('10/30 08:59 AM', '+13.5 -108', '-13.5 -102'), ('10/30 08:13 AM', '+13.5 -105', '-13.5 -105'), ('10/30 06:11 AM', '+13.5 +100', '-13.5 -110'), ('10/30 06:09 AM', '+13.5 -105', '-13.5 -105'), ('10/30 06:04 AM', '+13.5 -110', '-13.5 +100'), ('10/30 05:32 AM', '+13.5 -105', '-13.5 -105'), ('10/30 04:48 AM', '+13.5 -107', '-13.5 -103'), ('10/30 12:51 AM', '+13.5 -110', '-13.5 +100'), ('10/29 01:31 PM', '+13.5 -105', '-13.5 -105'), ('10/29 01:31 PM', '+13 +103', '-13 -113'), ('10/29 01:28 PM', '+13 -102', '-13 -108'), ('10/29 07:59 AM', '+13 -105', '-13 -105'), ('10/29 07:20 AM', '+13 -103', '-13 -107'), ('10/29 07:14 AM', '+13 -105', '-13 -105'), ('10/29 04:47 AM', '+13 +100', '-13 -110'), ('10/29 04:14 AM', '+13 -105', '-13 -105'), ('10/28 08:17 PM', '+12.5 +100', '-12.5 -110'), ('10/28 12:52 PM', '+12.5 -105', '-12.5 -105')]

Big list to test2:

[('10/30 04:30 PM', '+1.5 -111', '-1.5 +101'), ('10/30 04:24 PM', '+1.5 -110', '-1.5     +100'), ('10/30 04:21 PM', '+1.5 -111', '-1.5 +101'), ('10/30 04:15 PM', '+1.5 -112', '-1.5 +102'), ('10/30 04:14 PM', '+1.5 -110', '-1.5 +100'), ('10/30 03:57 PM', '+1.5 -111', '-1.5 +101'), ('10/30 03:40 PM', '+1.5 -110', '-1.5 +100'), ('10/30 03:31 PM', '+1.5 -111', '-1.5 +101'), ('10/30 03:30 PM', '+1.5 -109', '-1.5 -101'), ('10/30 03:25 PM', '+1.5 -107', '-1.5 -103'), ('10/30 03:24 PM', '+1.5 -110', '-1.5 +100'), ('10/30 03:23 PM', '+1.5 -108', '-1.5 -102'), ('10/30 03:22 PM', '+1.5 -106', '-1.5 -104'), ('10/30 02:14 PM', '+1.5 -104', '-1.5 -106'), ('10/30 01:41 PM', '+1.5 -105', '-1.5 -105'), ('10/30 01:37 PM', '+1.5 -107', '-1.5 -103'), ('10/30 01:36 PM', '+1.5 -105', '-1.5 -105'), ('10/30 01:06 PM', '+1.5 -103', '-1.5 -107'), ('10/30 12:56 PM', '+2 -111', '-2 +101'), ('10/30 12:53 PM', '+2 -110', '-2 +100'), ('10/30 12:50 PM', '+2 -113', '-2 +103'), ('10/30 12:49 PM', '+2 -112', '-2 +102'), ('10/30 12:46 PM', '+2 -113', '-2 +103'), ('10/30 12:45 PM', '+2 -110', '-2 +100'), ('10/30 12:43 PM', '+2 -108', '-2 -102'), ('10/30 12:38 PM', '+2.5 -116', '-2.5 +106'), ('10/30 12:38 PM', '+2.5 -113', '-2.5 +103'), ('10/30 12:37 PM', '+2.5 -110', '-2.5 +100'), ('10/30 10:30 AM', '+2.5 -105', '-2.5 -105'), ('10/30 10:07 AM', '+3 -113', '-3 +103'), ('10/30 09:55 AM', '+3 -112', '-3 +102'), ('10/30 09:51 AM', '+3 -110', '-3 +100'), ('10/30 09:32 AM', '+3 -109', '-3 -101'), ('10/30 06:04 AM', '+3 -110', '-3 +100'), ('10/30 03:16 AM', '+3 -107', '-3 -103'), ('10/30 03:14 AM', '+3.5 -116', '-3.5 +106'), ('10/30 01:03 AM', '+3.5 -115', '-3.5 +105'), ('10/30 12:17 AM', '+3.5 -110', '-3.5 +100'), ('10/29 08:52 PM', '+3.5 -108', '-3.5 -102'), ('10/29 01:31 PM', '+3.5 -105', '-3.5 -105'), ('10/29 06:48 AM', '+3.5 -110', '-3.5 +100'), ('10/29 06:47 AM', '+3.5 -109', '-3.5 -101'), ('10/29 05:39 AM', '+3.5 -113', '-3.5 +103'), ('10/29 03:34 AM', '+3.5 -108', '-3.5 -102'), ('10/29 12:44 AM', '+3.5 -110', '-3.5 +100'), ('10/29 12:41 AM', '+3.5 -107', '-3.5 -103'), ('10/29 12:40 AM', '+3.5 -105', '-3.5 -105'), ('10/28 12:52 PM', '+4 -105', '-4 -105')]

Answer 1

This can be done using datetime module, which is able to parse date string into datetime object, which supports comparison and arithmetic with dates:

from datetime import datetime

# function for parsing strings using specific format
get_datetime = lambda s: datetime.strptime(s, "%m/%d %I:%M %p")

base = get_datetime(base_date)
later = filter(lambda d: get_datetime(d[0]) > base, list_date)
closest_date = min(later, key = lambda d: get_datetime(d[0]))