How to Add and Subtract Days from a Date in Pandas

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You can use the following methods to add and subtract days from a date in pandas:

Method 1: Add Days to Date

df['date_column'] + pd.Timedelta(days=5)

Method 2: Subtract Days from Date

df['date_column'] - pd.Timedelta(days=5) 

The following examples show how to use each method in practice with the following pandas DataFrame:

import pandas as pd

#create DataFrame
df = pd.DataFrame({'date': ['2022-10-01', '2022-10-23', '2022-10-30', '2022-11-05'],
                   'sales': [450, 567, 612, 701]})

#convert date column to datetime
df['date'] = pd.to_datetime(df['date'])

#view DataFrame
print(df)

        date  sales
0 2022-10-01    450
1 2022-10-23    567
2 2022-10-30    612
3 2022-11-05    701

Example 1: Add Days to Date in Pandas

The following code shows how to create a new column that adds five days to the value in the date column:

#create new column that adds 5 days to value in date column
df['date_plus_five'] = df['date'] + pd.Timedelta(days=5)

#view updated DataFrame
print(df)

        date  sales date_plus_five
0 2022-10-01    450     2022-10-06
1 2022-10-23    567     2022-10-28
2 2022-10-30    612     2022-11-04
3 2022-11-05    701     2022-11-10

The new column date_plus_five represents the values in the date column with five days added to each value.

We can also use the dtypes function to confirm that the new column is indeed a datetime column:

#check data type of each column
df.dtypes

date              datetime64[ns]
sales                      int64
date_plus_five    datetime64[ns]
dtype: object

Both the date and date_plus_five columns are recognized as datetime formats.

Example 2: Subtract Days from Date in Pandas

The following code shows how to create a new column that subtracts five days from the value in the date column:

#create new column that subtracts five days from date
df['date_minus_five'] = df['date'] - pd.Timedelta(days=5)

#view updated DataFrame
print(df)

        date  sales date_minus_five
0 2022-10-01    450      2022-09-26
1 2022-10-23    567      2022-10-18
2 2022-10-30    612      2022-10-25
3 2022-11-05    701      2022-10-31

The new column date_minus_five represents the values in the date column with five days subtracted from each value.

Additional Resources

The following tutorials explain how to perform other common operations in pandas:

How to Convert Columns to DateTime in Pandas
How to Convert Datetime to Date in Pandas
How to Extract Month from Date in Pandas