Converting String into Datetime
How Do I Convert the Following String to a Datetime Object? "Jun 1 2005 1:33Pm" 4 25 Answers Datetime. Strptime Is the Main Routine for Parsing Strings into...
How do I convert the following string to a datetime object?
"Jun 1 2005 1:33PM"
25 Answers
datetime.strptime is the main routine for parsing strings into datetimes. It can handle all sorts of formats, with the format determined by a format string you give it:
from datetime import datetime
datetime_object = datetime.strptime('Jun 1 2005 1:33PM', '%b %d %Y %I:%M%p')
The resulting datetime object is timezone-naive.
Links:
Python documentation for
strptime/strftimeformat strings: Python 2, Python 3strftime.org is also a really nice reference for strftime
Notes:
strptime= "string parse time"strftime= "string format time"- Pronounce it out loud today & you won't have to search for it again in 6 months.
Also, as seen in a comment made by @Izkata, if you want a date instead of a datetime, going through datetime handles it nicely:
datetime.strptime('Jun 1 2005', '%b %d %Y').date() == date(2005, 6, 1)
Use the third party dateutil library:
from dateutil import parser
parser.parse("Aug 28 1999 12:00AM") # datetime.datetime(1999, 8, 28, 0, 0)
It can handle most date formats, including the one you need to parse. It's more convenient than strptime as it can guess the correct format most of the time.
It's very useful for writing tests, where readability is more important than performance.
You can install it with:
pip install python-dateutil
Check out strptime in the time module. It is the inverse of strftime.
$ python
>>> import time
>>> my_time = time.strptime('Jun 1 2005 1:33PM', '%b %d %Y %I:%M%p')
time.struct_time(tm_year=2005, tm_mon=6, tm_mday=1,
tm_hour=13, tm_min=33, tm_sec=0,
tm_wday=2, tm_yday=152, tm_isdst=-1)
timestamp = time.mktime(my_time)
# convert time object to datetime
from datetime import datetime
my_datetime = datetime.fromtimestamp(timestamp)
# convert time object to date
from datetime import date
my_date = date.fromtimestamp(timestamp)
Python >= 3.7
to convert YYYY-MM-DD string to datetime object, datetime.fromisoformat could be used.
from datetime import datetime
date_string = "2012-12-12 10:10:10"
print (datetime.fromisoformat(date_string))
2012-12-12 10:10:10
I have put together a project that can convert some really neat expressions. Check out timestring.
Sarah Jenkins is a veteran tech journalist with over 12 years of experience covering artificial intelligence, mobile innovations, and digital ethics. Her insights have appeared in leading technology publications worldwide.
