How to convert string to datetime format?

Question

How to convert a string to the specified datetime format ? For example:

str = 'Wed Mar 16 16:12:05 2016 +0800'

How can I convert it to : 2016-03-16 16:12:05?

thanks all , I used strptime + strftime and it can works – JiangLing Mar 18 '16 at 09:23 — JiangLing, Mar 18 '16 at 09:23

greg_data · Answer 1 · 2016-03-18T09:06:20.350

3

Arrow is a great module for doing this in a very straightoforward way: http://crsmithdev.com/arrow/

I perfer arrow to datetime as it is more succinct

For your specific example:

import arrow
date_str = 'Wed Mar 16 16:12:05 2016 +0800'
date = arrow.get(date_str,'ddd MMM D HH:mm:SS YYYY Z')
print date
2016-03-16T16:12:00.050000+08:00
>>>

Also, it's a bad idea to name strings

str

As this is taken, for the string type!

Why Arrow? I believe it has a nicer api than datetime:

>>> date.humanize()
3: u'2 days ago'
>>> date.resolution
4: datetime.timedelta(0, 0, 1)
>>> date.datetime
5: datetime.datetime(2016, 3, 16, 16, 12, 0, 50000, tzinfo=tzoffset(None, 28800))
>>> date.utctimetuple()
7: time.struct_time(tm_year=2016, tm_mon=3, tm_mday=16, tm_hour=8, tm_min=12, tm_sec=0, tm_wday=2, tm_yday=76, tm_isdst=0)
>>>

edited Mar 18 '16 at 09:06

answered Mar 18 '16 at 09:01

greg_data

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Also, whoever downvoted this, care to explain why? – greg_data Mar 18 '16 at 09:03
That is the reason, why i like to write a comment instead of answer – qvpham Mar 18 '16 at 09:06
wow, I do not understand that comment – greg_data Mar 18 '16 at 09:07
there are peoples, who downvote your answer without reason – qvpham Mar 18 '16 at 09:09
1

ahh, I understand ye now. I like to answer, to share the knowledge, screw people who downvote without reason. – greg_data Mar 18 '16 at 09:10
thanks to share this module , I'll learn it also^0^ – JiangLing Mar 18 '16 at 09:26

score 2 · Answer 2 · edited Mar 18 '16 at 09:07

2

You can do this using strptime :

import datetime
myDatetime=datetime.datetime.strptime(My_string, format)

with format being such as "%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S" for Year month day, hour minutes seconds, so in your case it would be 'name of the day, month, day, etc ...

edited Mar 18 '16 at 09:07

Avión

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answered Mar 18 '16 at 08:55

Chiappero

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yes , I refer to the manual , and it can works ,many thanks – JiangLing Mar 18 '16 at 09:25

score 2 · Accepted Answer · edited Oct 15 '18 at 09:33

Use datetime library to convert datetime string into datetime object by **strptime()** and from datetime object to datetime strign by **strftime()**.

Format modes:

%a Weekday as locale’s abbreviated name.
%d Day of the month as a zero-padded decimal number.
%b Month as locale’s abbreviated name.
%H Hour (24-hour clock) as a zero-padded decimal number.
%M Minute as a zero-padded decimal number.
%S Second as a zero-padded decimal number.

more details..

Demo:

>>> from datetime import datetime
>>> result_date =  datetime.strptime('Wed Mar 16 16:12:05 2016', '%a %b %d %H:%M:%S %Y')
>>> result_date
datetime.datetime(2016, 3, 16, 16, 12, 5)
>>> result_date.strftime("%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S")
'2016-03-16 16:12:05'

Note:

Do not use reserved word as variable name. e.g. srt

many thanks for all of the kindly people's help :) – JiangLing Mar 18 '16 at 09:32 — JiangLing, Mar 18 '16 at 09:32

How to convert string to datetime format?

3 Answers3