Using update cursor to populate a field based on a Date field in ArcPy

Question

I'm trying to populate a field (Season, "TEXT") in my attribute table with a season code based on a sampling date (FIXDATE, "DATE"). For example sample collected between 01/01/2016 and 01/03/2016 would get season code "SPRING". I'm new to arcpy and search cursors. Here is my code so far.

import arcpy
from datetime import datetime

caribou = "C:/Python/Test_data.gdb/test_data"
fields = ['FIXDATE', 'Season']
with arcpy.da.UpdateCursor(caribou, fields) as cursor:
    for row in cursor:
        if (row[0] >= datetime.strptime("01/01/2016", "%d/%m/%y") and row[0] <= datetime.strptime("01/03/2016", "%d/%m/%y")):
            row[1] = "SPRING"
        elif (row[0] >= datetime.strptime("02/03/2016", "%d/%m/%y")and row[0] <= datetime.strptime("01/06/2016", "%d/%m/%y")):
            row[1] = "SUMMER"
        elif (row[0] >= datetime.strptime("02/06/2016", "%d/%m/%y") and row[0] <= datetime.strptime("01/10/2016", "%d/%m/%y")):
            row[1] = "FALL"
        elif (row[0] >= datetime.strptime("02/10/2016", "%d/%m/%y")):
            row[1] = "WINTER"

    # Update the cursor with the updated list
        cursor.updateRow(row)

Answer 1

You need to convert row[0] to the same format as your datetime.strptime("02/06/2016", "%d/%m/%y"), and also your %y needs to be %Y for the 4 digit year. I have added an extra line myDate = datetime.strptime(datetime.strftime(row[0], "%d/%m/%Y"), "%d/%m/%Y") to convert the row[0] and then use that in each if/elif for comparison.

import arcpy
from datetime import datetime

caribou = "C:/Python/Test_data.gdb/test_data"
fields = ['FIXDATE', 'Season']

with arcpy.da.UpdateCursor(caribou, fields) as cursor:
    for row in cursor:
        myDate = datetime.strptime(datetime.strftime(row[0], "%d/%m/%Y"), "%d/%m/%Y")
        if (myDate >= datetime.strptime("01/01/2016", "%d/%m/%Y") and myDate <= datetime.strptime("01/03/2016", "%d/%m/%Y")):
            row[1] = "SPRING"
        elif (myDate >= datetime.strptime("02/03/2016", "%d/%m/%Y")and myDate <= datetime.strptime("01/06/2016", "%d/%m/%Y")):
            row[1] = "SUMMER"
        elif (myDate >= datetime.strptime("02/06/2016", "%d/%m/%Y") and myDate <= datetime.strptime("01/10/2016", "%d/%m/%Y")):
            row[1] = "FALL"
        elif (myDate >= datetime.strptime("02/10/2016", "%d/%m/%Y")):
            row[1] = "WINTER"

    # Update the cursor with the updated list
        cursor.updateRow(row)