Python : Converting time string with different timezone to host timezone datetime object?

Question

My host has timezone UTC and I am trying to convert PDT time string to date time object, I have used the below given code-snippet but it didn't worked

datetime_obj = datetime.datetime.strptime('Thu Jun 09 08:28:12 PDT 2016', '%a %b %d %H:%M:%S %Z %Y')

I am getting this error -

ValueError: time data 'Thu Jun 09 08:28:12 PDT 2016' does not match format '%a %b %d %H:%M:%S %Z %Y'

I got it that it's because my host's timezone is UTC. But I am not able to figure out the way to solve this issue. I need to convert PDT string to UTC aware timezone.

I am blocked. Any help Appreciated.

Where is the local time object being generated from? The `pdt` part is why it's not working correctly. — l'L'l, Jun 11 '16 at 12:22
my host is on UTC where i am running the above code, and time string i am getting from another service — Bruce_Wayne, Jun 11 '16 at 12:23
You're likely going to need to localize the PDT portion or convert it before trying to format it with datetime. — l'L'l, Jun 11 '16 at 12:24
You can also do it using `parser.parse(date_string)` imported from `dateutil` — Nickil Maveli, Jun 11 '16 at 12:26
@NickilMaveli i tried utc_dateObj = dateObj.astimezone(timezone('UTC')) after parsing using dateutil. but it is giving error then as - "ValueError: astimezone() cannot be applied to a naive datetime" — Bruce_Wayne, Jun 11 '16 at 13:08

Marlon Abeykoon · Accepted Answer · 2016-06-11T14:59:49.420

1

You can have many different values in TZINFOS. Which will support your code not to fail if it encounters different timezones.

Parse the string then converting PDT datetime to UTC is explained below.

import pytz
import dateutil.parser
TZINFOS = { 'PDT': pytz.timezone('US/Pacific')}
datetime_obj = dateutil.parser.parse('Thu Jun 09 08:28:12 PDT 2016', tzinfos= TZINFOS)
print datetime_obj
datetime_in_utc = datetime_obj.astimezone(pytz.utc) # convert to UTC
print datetime_in_utc

And print pytz.all_timezones will give you all possible values.

edited Jun 11 '16 at 14:59

answered Jun 11 '16 at 14:27

Marlon Abeykoon

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how come this specific structure "TZINFOS = { 'PDT': pytz.timezone('US/Pacific')} " of TZINFOS work. Can you explain ? – Bruce_Wayne Jun 12 '16 at 08:00
This argument maps time zone names to timezones see http://dateutil.readthedocs.io/en/stable/parser.html – Marlon Abeykoon Jun 12 '16 at 14:25
thanks for the solution ! – Bruce_Wayne Jun 13 '16 at 13:12

Python : Converting time string with different timezone to host timezone datetime object?

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