Python strptime()

Python `strptime()`#

Learn to create a datetime object from a string (with the help of examples).

The strptime() method creates a datetime (@ Example 9) object from the given string.

Note: You cannot create datetime object from every string. The string needs to be in a certain format.

Example 1: string to datetime object#

# Example 1: string to datetime object

from datetime import datetime

date_string = "21 June, 2018"

print("date_string =", date_string)
print("type of date_string =", type(date_string))

date_object = datetime.strptime(date_string, "%d %B, %Y")

print("date_object =", date_object)
print("type of date_object =", type(date_object))

# When you run the program, the output will be something like below:

date_string = 21 June, 2018
type of date_string = <class 'str'>
date_object = 2018-06-21 00:00:00
type of date_object = <class 'datetime.datetime'>

How `strptime()` works?#

The strftime() class method takes two arguments:

string (that be converted to datetime)
format code

Based on the string and format code used, the method returns its equivalent datetime object.

In the above example:

Here,

%d - Represents the day of the month. Example: 01, 02, …, 31
%B - Month’s name in full. Example: January, February etc.
%Y - Year in four digits. Example: 2018, 2019 etc.

Example 2: string to datetime object#

# Example 2: string to datetime object

from datetime import datetime

dt_string = "12/11/2018 09:15:32"

# Considering date is in dd/mm/yyyy format
dt_object1 = datetime.strptime(dt_string, "%d/%m/%Y %H:%M:%S")
print("dt_object1 =", dt_object1)

# Considering date is in mm/dd/yyyy format
dt_object2 = datetime.strptime(dt_string, "%m/%d/%Y %H:%M:%S")
print("dt_object2 =", dt_object2)

# When you run the program, the output will be something like below:

dt_object1 = 2018-11-12 09:15:32
dt_object2 = 2018-12-11 09:15:32

Format Code List#

The table below shows all the codes that you can pass to the strptime() method.

Directive	Meaning	Example
`%a`	Abbreviated weekday name.	Sun, Mon, …
`%A`	Full weekday name.	Sunday, Monday, …
`%w`	Weekday as a decimal number.	0, 1, …, 6
`%d`	Day of the month as a zero-padded decimal.	01, 02, …, 31
`%-d`	Day of the month as a decimal number.	1, 2, …, 30
`%b`	Abbreviated month name.	Jan, Feb, …, Dec
`%B`	Full month name.	January, February, …
`%m`	Month as a zero-padded decimal number.	01, 02, …, 12
`%-m`	Month as a decimal number.	1, 2, …, 12
`%y`	Year without century as a zero-padded decimal number.	00, 01, …, 99
`%-y`	Year without century as a decimal number.	0, 1, …, 99
`%Y`	Year with century as a decimal number.	2013, 2019 etc.
`%H`	Hour (24-hour clock) as a zero-padded decimal number.	00, 01, …, 23
`%-H`	Hour (24-hour clock) as a decimal number.	0, 1, …, 23
`%I`	Hour (12-hour clock) as a zero-padded decimal number.	01, 02, …, 12
`%-I`	Hour (12-hour clock) as a decimal number.	1, 2, … 12
`%p`	Locale’s AM or PM.	AM, PM
`%M`	Minute as a zero-padded decimal number.	00, 01, …, 59
`%-M`	Minute as a decimal number.	0, 1, …, 59
`%S`	Second as a zero-padded decimal number.	00, 01, …, 59
`%-S`	Second as a decimal number.	0, 1, …, 59
`%f`	Microsecond as a decimal number, zero-padded on the left.	000000 - 999999
`%z`	UTC offset in the form +HHMM or -HHMM.
`%Z`	Time zone name.
`%j`	Day of the year as a zero-padded decimal number.	001, 002, …, 366
`%-j`	Day of the year as a decimal number.	1, 2, …, 366
`%U`	Week number of the year (Sunday as the first day of the week). All days in a new year preceding the first Sunday are considered to be in week 0.	00, 01, …, 53
`%U`	Week number of the year (Monday as the first day of the week). All days in a new year preceding the first Monday are considered to be in week 0.	00, 01, …, 53
`%c`	Locale’s appropriate date and time representation.	Mon Sep 30 07:06:05 2013
`%x`	Locale’s appropriate date representation.	09/30/13
`%X`	Locale’s appropriate time representation.	07:06:05
`%%`	A literal ‘%’ character.	%

`ValueError` in `strptime()`#

If the string (first argument) and the format code (second argument) passed to the strptime() doesn’t match, you will get ValueError. For example:

from datetime import datetime

date_string = "12/11/2018"
date_object = datetime.strptime(date_string, "%d %m %Y")

print("date_object =", date_object)

# When you run the program, the output will be something like below:

---------------------------------------------------------------------------
ValueError                                Traceback (most recent call last)
<ipython-input-3-fffbe51149a7> in <module>
      2 
      3 date_string = "12/11/2018"
----> 4 date_object = datetime.strptime(date_string, "%d %m %Y")
      5 
      6 print("date_object =", date_object)

C:\ProgramData\Anaconda3\lib\_strptime.py in _strptime_datetime(cls, data_string, format)
    566     """Return a class cls instance based on the input string and the
    567     format string."""
--> 568     tt, fraction, gmtoff_fraction = _strptime(data_string, format)
    569     tzname, gmtoff = tt[-2:]
    570     args = tt[:6] + (fraction,)

C:\ProgramData\Anaconda3\lib\_strptime.py in _strptime(data_string, format)
    347     found = format_regex.match(data_string)
    348     if not found:
--> 349         raise ValueError("time data %r does not match format %r" %
    350                          (data_string, format))
    351     if len(data_string) != found.end():

ValueError: time data '12/11/2018' does not match format '%d %m %Y'

We also recommend you to check Python strftime().

Python strptime()

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Python strptime()#