Convert Date to Binary - Practice Coding Problems

Convert Date to Binary - Problem

Math String Easy

Convert Date to Binary Representation

You are given a string date representing a Gregorian calendar date in the yyyy-mm-dd format. Your task is to transform this date into its binary representation by converting each component (year, month, and day) to binary without any leading zeroes.

The Challenge:
• Parse the date string to extract year, month, and day
• Convert each component to its binary representation
• Remove any leading zeros from the binary strings
• Join them back in the format year-month-day

Example: "2080-02-29" becomes "100000100000-10-11101"
• Year 2080 → 100000100000 (in binary)
• Month 02 → 10 (in binary)
• Day 29 → 11101 (in binary)

Input & Output

example_1.py — Basic Date Conversion

$ Input: "2080-02-29"

› Output: "100000100000-10-11101"

💡 Note: Year 2080 converts to binary 100000100000, month 02 (which is 2) converts to 10, and day 29 converts to 11101. Join with hyphens to get the result.

example_2.py — Simple Date

$ Input: "1900-01-01"

› Output: "11101101100-1-1"

💡 Note: Year 1900 → 11101101100, month 1 → 1, day 1 → 1. Notice how leading zeros are removed from the original '01-01'.

example_3.py — Edge Case

$ Input: "2000-12-31"

› Output: "11111010000-1100-11111"

💡 Note: Year 2000 → 11111010000, month 12 → 1100, day 31 → 11111. Shows conversion of larger month and day values.

Constraints

date.length == 10
date[4] == date[7] == '-'
All other characters in date are digits
Date represents a valid Gregorian calendar date between year 1 and year 10⁴
The input will always be in the exact format yyyy-mm-dd

Visualization

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Understanding the Visualization

Parse the Date

Split '2080-02-29' into three components: year=2080, month=2, day=29

Convert Year

2080 in binary is 100000100000 (remove leading zeros automatically)

Convert Month

2 in binary is 10

Convert Day

29 in binary is 11101

Reassemble

Join with hyphens: '100000100000-10-11101'

Key Takeaway

🎯 Key Insight: This problem is simply about parsing and converting - split the date, convert each number to binary using built-in functions, and reassemble with hyphens.

Asked in

G Google 15 a Amazon 12 ⊞ Microsoft 8 Apple 5

The optimal solution parses the date string and uses built-in binary conversion functions. Split by '-', convert each component to integer, then to binary using bin()[2:] in Python or toString(2) in JavaScript. Time: O(log n), Space: O(log n).

Common Approaches

Approach	Time	Space	Notes
✓ Manual Binary Conversion	O(log n)	O(log n)	Parse date components and manually convert each to binary using division
Built-in Binary Conversion (Optimal)	O(log n)	O(log n)	Parse date components and use built-in binary conversion functions

Manual Binary Conversion — Algorithm Steps

Split the date string by '-' to get year, month, day
For each component, convert string to integer
Implement manual binary conversion using division by 2
Collect remainders in reverse order to form binary string
Join the three binary strings with '-' separator

Visualization

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Step-by-Step Walkthrough

Parse Date

Split '2080-02-29' into components: 2080, 2, 29

Convert Year

2080 ÷ 2 = 1040 remainder 0, continue until quotient is 0

Convert Month

2 ÷ 2 = 1 remainder 0, 1 ÷ 2 = 0 remainder 1 → '10'

Convert Day

29 → 16+8+4+1 → 11101 in binary

Combine

Join with hyphens: '100000100000-10-11101'

Code -

solution.c — C

#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
#include <string.h>

void toBinaryManual(int num, char* result) {
    if (num == 0) {
        strcpy(result, "0");
        return;
    }
    
    char temp[32];
    int i = 0;
    while (num > 0) {
        temp[i++] = '0' + (num % 2);
        num /= 2;
    }
    
    int j;
    for (j = 0; j < i; j++) {
        result[j] = temp[i - 1 - j];
    }
    result[j] = '\0';
}

int main() {
    char date[32];
    fgets(date, sizeof(date), stdin);
    
    // Remove quotes and newline
    char* start = strchr(date, '"');
    if (start) {
        start++;
        char* end = strchr(start, '"');
        if (end) *end = '\0';
        strcpy(date, start);
    }
    
    char* year_str = strtok(date, "-");
    char* month_str = strtok(NULL, "-");
    char* day_str = strtok(NULL, "-");
    
    int year = atoi(year_str);
    int month = atoi(month_str);
    int day = atoi(day_str);
    
    char year_bin[32], month_bin[32], day_bin[32];
    toBinaryManual(year, year_bin);
    toBinaryManual(month, month_bin);
    toBinaryManual(day, day_bin);
    
    printf("%s-%s-%s\n", year_bin, month_bin, day_bin);
    return 0;
}

Time & Space Complexity

Time Complexity

⏱️

O(log n)

Where n is the largest number (year). Each number requires log n divisions to convert to binary

⚡ Linearithmic

Space Complexity

O(log n)

Space needed to store the binary representation of the largest component

⚡ Linearithmic Space

22.5K Views

Medium Frequency

~8 min Avg. Time

890 Likes

Ln 1, Col 1

Smart Actions

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Input & Output

Constraints

Visualization

Related Problems

Common Approaches

Manual Binary Conversion — Algorithm Steps

Visualization

Code -

Time & Space Complexity

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