Python - Converting string to datetime object

Question

I've been trying to convert a timestamp that is a string to a datetime object. The problem is the timestamps formatting. I haven't been able to properly parse the timestamp using datetime.datetime.strptime. I could write my own little parser as its a simple problem but I was hoping to use strptime function, I just need help on the formatting.

Example

import datetime

formater = "%y-%m-%dT%H:%M:%SZ"
str_timestamp = "2021-03-13T18:27:37.60918Z"
timestamp = datetime.datetime.strptime(str_timestamp, formater)

print (timestamp)

Output

builtins.ValueError: time data '2021-03-13T18:27:37.60918Z' does not match format '%y-%m-%dT%H:%M:%SZ'

I'm clearly not symbolizing the formatter properly, the T and Z parts are what I can't account for.

Does this answer your question? [How do I parse an ISO 8601-formatted date?](https://stackoverflow.com/questions/127803/how-do-i-parse-an-iso-8601-formatted-date) — FObersteiner, Apr 01 '21 at 22:44

score 2 · Answer 1 · answered Apr 01 '21 at 21:23

2

y should be Y. y is for 2 digits year.
You should also take care for the milliseconds with .%f:

%Y-%m-%dT%H:%M:%S.%fZ

answered Apr 01 '21 at 21:23

DeepSpace

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Awesome it works. I haven't parsed timestamps in a while. Thanks. – Brandon Nadeau Apr 01 '21 at 21:27
`Z` denotes UTC, that shouldn't be just ignored by using a literal Z in the strftime directive – FObersteiner Apr 01 '21 at 22:47
Are you saying I should or shouldn't include the Z in the formatter – Brandon Nadeau Apr 01 '21 at 23:54
1

@Crispy you can replace it with `%z` - then you should get a datetime object with tzinfo set to UTC. This makes a difference because if tzinfo is not set, Python will treat datetime objects as local time (your OS setting). – FObersteiner Apr 02 '21 at 08:22

score 0 · Answer 2 · answered Apr 01 '21 at 21:26

0

This format works:

formater = "%Y-%m-%dT%H:%M:%S.%fZ"

output:

2021-03-13 18:27:37.609180

answered Apr 01 '21 at 21:26

Vedank Pande

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Python - Converting string to datetime object

Example

Output

2 Answers2