python format datetime with "st", "nd", "rd", "th" (english ordinal suffix) like PHP's "S"
datetime, django, format, php, python
Solution
The django.utils.dateformat has a function `format` that takes two arguments, the first one being the date (a `datetime.date` [[or `datetime.datetime`]] instance, where `datetime` is the module in Python's standard library), the second one being the format string, and returns the resulting formatted string. The uppercase-`S` format item (if part of the format string, of course) is the one that expands to the proper one of 'st', 'nd', 'rd' or 'th', depending on the day-of-month of the date in question.
Problem
I would like a python datetime object to output (and use the result in django) like this: ``` Thu the 2nd at 4:30 ``` But I find no way in python to output `st`, `nd`, `rd`, or `th` like I can with PHP datetime format with the `S` string (What they call "English Ordinal Suffix") (http://uk.php.net/manual/en/function.date.php). Is there a built-in way to do this in django/python? `strftime` isn't good enough (http://docs.python.org/library/datetime.html#strftime-strptime-behavior). Django has a filter which does what I want, but I want a function, not a filter, to do what I want. Either a django or python function will be fine.