fb friend addition/removal plot

main.py

import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
import datetime as td


# In case anyone wants to try this themselves:
# Download your facebook zipped facebook history.
# There you'll find a file named fiends.html
# Format the paragraph with "added friends" / "deleted friends" to look like
# replacing </li><li> with newline
"""
Firstname Lastname (yyyy-mm-dd)
Firstname Lastname (yyyy-mm-dd)
Firstname Lastname (yyyy-mm-dd)
Firstname Lastname (yyyy-mm-dd)
"""
# and save as
# - ppl_added.txt
# - ppl_removed.txt

def month_to_num(m):
    return{
            'January' : 1,
            'February' : 2,
            'March' : 3,
            'April' : 4,
            'May' : 5,
            'June' : 6,
            'July' : 7,
            'August' : 8,
            'September' : 9, 
            'October' : 10,
            'November' : 11,
            'December' : 12
    }[m]


def get_dates_from_file(filename):
    added=[]
    with open(filename, 'r') as f:
       for s in f:
           date = (s[s.find("(")+1:s.find(")")]).split()
           month = month_to_num(date[1])
           added.append(td.date(int(date[2]),  int(month), int(date[0])))
    return added
          

added_file = 'ppl_added.txt'
removed_file = 'ppl_removed.txt'

added = get_dates_from_file(added_file)
removed = get_dates_from_file(removed_file)


plt.hist(removed, bins=7*4, alpha=0.6, align='mid', color='red', label='removed')
plt.hist(added, bins=7*4, alpha=0.3, align='mid', color='blue', label='added')
plt.title("Friends added/removed on facebook")
plt.ylabel("# friends")
plt.xlabel("Year")
plt.legend(loc='upper right')

plt.show()