Python: AttributeError: 'str' object has no attribute 'datetime'

Question

I am using this code:

def calcDateDifferenceInMinutes(end_date,start_date):
    fmt = '%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S'
    start_date_dt = datetime.strptime(start_date, fmt)
    end_date_dt = datetime.strptime(end_date, fmt)

# convert to unix timestamp
start_date_ts = time.mktime(start_date_dt.timetuple())
end_date_ts   = time.mktime(end_date_dt.timetuple())

# they are now in seconds, subtract and then divide by 60 to get minutes.
return (int(end_date_ts-start_date_ts) / 60)

from this question: stackoverflow question

But I'm getting this message:

AttributeError: 'str' object has no attribute 'datetime'

I've reviewed similar questions but don't see any alternatives other than to do something like:

start_date_dt = datetime.datetime.strptime(start_date, fmt)

Here's the full trace:

> Traceback (most recent call last):   File "tabbed_all_cols.py", line
> 156, in <module>
>     trip_calculated_duration = calcDateDifferenceInMinutes (end_datetime,start_datetime)   File "tabbed_all_cols.py", line 41, in
> calcDateDifferenceInMinutes
>     start_date_dt = datetime.datetime.strptime(start_date, fmt) AttributeError: 'str' object has no attribute 'datetime'

And line 41 is:

start_date_dt = datetime.datetime.strptime(start_date, fmt)

Can someone shed light on what I'm missing?

New Update: I'm still trying to figure this out. I see that version is important. I am using version 2.7 and am importing datetime.

I don't think I am setting the string date back to a string, which is what I think people are suggesting below.

Thanks

Somewhere upstream, you must have done `datetime = "some string"` — tobias_k, Mar 11 '16 at 15:17
Your title and your question have different error messages. Which is it? — zondo, Mar 11 '16 at 15:18
Hi all: Here's the call to the method: duration = calcDateDifferenceInMinutes (tend_datetime,start_datetime). And I am passing in a these as strings. — Jazzmine, Mar 11 '16 at 15:19
Please show the full stacktrace. It will tell you what line has the error — Bryan Oakley, Mar 11 '16 at 15:21
'@zondo - Yes, I've updated my title to reflect the error I'm getting. Thanks for catching that. — Jazzmine, Mar 11 '16 at 15:21
is there indentation typo in your code? I suppose all the lines belong to the function? — Billal Begueradj, Mar 11 '16 at 15:22
**Your exception does not match the code posted**. Please provide **all** the code in one block. Perhaps you should share what you're actually trying to achieve — Alastair McCormack, Mar 11 '16 at 15:31
@Jazzmine see my last comment - you need to provide **all** of your code and formatted correctly — Alastair McCormack, Mar 11 '16 at 17:56

Bryan Oakley · Answer 1 · 2016-03-11T15:28:10.367

When you get an error like <str> object has no attribute X, that means that somewhere you are doing something like some_object.X. It also means that some_object is a string. Since it doesn't have the attribute, it typically means you are assuming that some_object is something else.

The full error message will tell you what line is causing the problem. In your case, it is this:

start_date_dt = datetime.datetime.strptime(start_date, fmt) AttributeError: 'str' object has no attribute 'datetime'

The only object here that is accessing datetime is the first datetime. That means that the first datetime is a string, and you're assuming it represents a module.

If you were to print out datetime (eg: print("datetime is:", datetime)) I'm sure you would see a string.

That means that somewhere else in your code you are overwriting datetime by setting it to a string (eg: datetime = "some string")

In my case, it was because I had unwisely created another variable called "time" that contained the current time I was getting from a GPS unit. The code thought I was attempting to access this variable (which was a string), instead of the time class. — ConcernedHobbit, Oct 29 '19 at 19:30

Python: AttributeError: 'str' object has no attribute 'datetime'

1 Answers1