Can this be done any way more pythonic?
>>> import datetime
>>> date = '20131018'
>>> date
'20131018'
>>> year, month, day = date[0:4], date[4:6], date[6:]
>>> datetime.date(int(year), int(month), int(day))
datetime.date(2013, 10, 18)
Thanks
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user1741339
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Python already has a built-in way of parsing dates from strings in the datetime package, namely datetime.datetime.strptime:
>>> from datetime import datetime as dt
>>> date = '20131018'
>>> dt.strptime(date, "%Y%m%d").date()
datetime.date(2013, 10, 18)
See the docs for all of the available format / parsing options.
Sean Vieira
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3`strptime` returns a `datetime`, not a `date` as your example shows. You need to call `date()` on the newly created datetime: `dt.strptime(date, "%Y%m%d").date()`. – Steven Rumbalski Oct 19 '13 at 17:42
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1@StevenRumbalski - valid point - I've updated my answer. Thanks! – Sean Vieira Oct 19 '13 at 19:10