How to convert string into datetime format?

General Discussions
#1

How to convert string into datetime format?

#2

To convert a string into a datetime format, you can use the datetime.strptime method, which parses an input string according to the specified format and returns a timezone-naive datetime object. Here’s an example:

from datetime import datetime
datetime_object = datetime.strptime('Jun 1 2005 1:33PM', '%b %d %Y %I:%M%p')
print(datetime_object)  # Output: 2005-06-01 13:33:00

If you need a date object from a datetime object, you can use the .date() method:

date_object = datetime.strptime('Jun 1 2005', '%b %d %Y').date()
print(date_object)  # Output: 2005-06-01

Useful Links:

Notes:

  • strptime stands for “string parse time”
  • strftime stands for “string format time”
#3

The other approach to convert string to date is by using the dateutil library, which provides a powerful way to parse strings into datetime objects without needing a specific format string. Here’s how you can use it:

from dateutil.parser import parse

datetime_object = parse('Jun 1 2005 1:33PM')
print(datetime_object)  # Output: 2005-06-01 13:33:00

To obtain just the date from the parsed datetime object:

date_only = parse('Jun 1 2005').date()
print(date_only)  # Output: 2005-06-01
#4

You can use pandas.to_datetime

The pandas library offers a convenient to_datetime function that can also convert strings to datetime objects:

import pandas as pd

datetime_object = pd.to_datetime('Jun 1 2005 1:33PM')
print(datetime_object)  # Output: 2005-06-01 13:33:00

To extract the date from the datetime object:

date_only = pd.to_datetime('Jun 1 2005').date()
print(date_only)  # Output: 2005-06-01

Useful Links:

dateutil.parser documentation ( parser — dateutil 3.9.0 documentation) pandas.to_datetime documentation ( pandas.to_datetime — pandas 2.2.2 documentation)

Notes:

dateutil.parser.parse is useful for parsing a variety of date formats automatically. pandas.to_datetime is versatile and handles many date formats, also providing additional functionality for handling date-related data.