python the code strftime("%s") errors

Question

THE python program is as follows, it errors:

File "C:\Python\PyCharmProject\FaceBookCrawl\group_download.py", line 31, in getFeed params += "&since=" + SINCE.strftime("%s")
ValueError: Invalid format string

the program it seems SINCE.strftime("%s") is wrong, how to solve it?

SINCE = datetime.datetime.now() - datetime.timedelta(DAYS)

params = "?fields=permalink_url,from,story,type,message,link,created_time,updated_time,likes.limit(0).summary(total_count),comments.limit(0).summary(total_count)"

#Default paging limit
params += "&amp&limit=" + DEFAULT_LIMIT

#Time-based limit
params += "&amp;since=" + SINCE.strftime("%s")
graph_url = GRAPH_URL_PREFIX + group + "/feed" + params

Kindly post the complete code here – Nabeel Ahmed Jan 12 '17 at 10:09 — Nabeel Ahmed, Jan 12 '17 at 10:09

score 5 · Answer 1 · answered Jan 12 '17 at 08:31

5

Actually, it should be capital S:

params += "&amp;since=" + SINCE.strftime("%S")
                                           ^

answered Jan 12 '17 at 08:31

Iron Fist

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when modify to capital S:it errors:File "C:\Python\PyCharmProject\FaceBookCrawl\group_download.py", line 31, in getFeed params += "&since=" + SINCE.strftime("%Ｓ") UnicodeEncodeError: 'locale' codec can't encode character '\uff33' in position 1: Illegal byte sequence – bin Jan 12 '17 at 08:34
You have a unicode issue, what Python version are you using? and can you post what's in `SINCE` variable – Iron Fist Jan 12 '17 at 08:36
Can you post what's in `param` and `SINCE` ? – Iron Fist Jan 12 '17 at 08:42
DAYS = 14 SINCE = datetime.datetime.now() - datetime.timedelta(DAYS) when print(SINCE),the result is 2016-12-29 00:37:29.296710 – bin Jan 12 '17 at 08:47
You probably have in `param` some unicode char. whose encoding isn't 'utf-8' because error message says at position 1, can u post what's in `param`? – Iron Fist Jan 12 '17 at 08:50
what do you mean, what is the "post" in your comment mean – bin Jan 12 '17 at 08:55
could you please help me, I have no idea – bin Jan 12 '17 at 10:16
Can you post more code?, because like this it is hard for me to keep guessing your issue – Iron Fist Jan 12 '17 at 12:05

score 1 · Answer 2 · answered Dec 16 '22 at 14:45

For anybody coming here when using ("%s") to generate an Epoch timestamp. Note that the usage of strftime("%s") is platform dependent and doesnt work on windows while it works on Linux with you Local Timezone. You can just use timestamp():

int(datetime.datetime.utcnow().timestamp())

You can read more here Convert python datetime to epoch with strftime

score 0 · Answer 3 · edited May 23 '17 at 11:52

ValueError: Invalid format string

You're using the wrong formatter i.e. it has to be upper case 'S' - here's datetime's strftime reference.

UnicodeEncodeError: 'locale' codec can't encode character '\uff33' in position 1: Illegal byte sequence

the \uff33 is basically the the full width latin letter 'S' - the one you edited to get rid of previous ValueError.

Solution/way-outs:

1.Use raw string i.e. prefix your string with an 'r'

params = r"?fields=permalink_url,from,story,type,message,link,created_time,updated_time,likes.limit(0).summary(total_count),comments.limit(0).summary(total_count)"

2.If you're using str() to convert from unicode to encoded text / bytes - instead use .encode() to encode the string. A helpful SO thread.

python the code strftime("%s") errors

3 Answers3