How to convert Python's .isoformat() string back into datetime object
Solution 1
Python 3.7+
As of Python 3.7 there is a method datetime.fromisoformat()
which is exactly the reverse for isoformat()
.
Older Python
If you have older Python, then this is the current best "solution" to this question:
pip install python-dateutil
Then...
import datetime
import dateutil
def getDateTimeFromISO8601String(s):
d = dateutil.parser.parse(s)
return d
Solution 2
Try this:
>>> def gt(dt_str):
... dt, _, us = dt_str.partition(".")
... dt = datetime.datetime.strptime(dt, "%Y-%m-%dT%H:%M:%S")
... us = int(us.rstrip("Z"), 10)
... return dt + datetime.timedelta(microseconds=us)
Usage:
>>> gt("2008-08-12T12:20:30.656234Z")
datetime.datetime(2008, 8, 12, 12, 20, 30, 656234)
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Updated on January 23, 2021Comments
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Alex Urcioli over 3 years
So in Python 3, you can generate an ISO 8601 date with .isoformat(), but you can't convert a string created by isoformat() back into a datetime object because Python's own datetime directives don't match properly. That is, %z = 0500 instead of 05:00 (which is produced by .isoformat()).
For example:
>>> strDate = d.isoformat() >>> strDate '2015-02-04T20:55:08.914461+00:00' >>> objDate = datetime.strptime(strDate,"%Y-%m-%dT%H:%M:%S.%f%z") Traceback (most recent call last): File "<stdin>", line 1, in <module> File "C:\Python34\Lib\_strptime.py", line 500, in _strptime_datetime tt, fraction = _strptime(data_string, format) File "C:\Python34\Lib\_strptime.py", line 337, in _strptime (data_string, format)) ValueError: time data '2015-02-04T20:55:08.914461+00:00' does not match format '%Y-%m-%dT%H:%M:%S.%f%z'
From Python's strptime documentation: (https://docs.python.org/2/library/datetime.html#strftime-strptime-behavior)
%z UTC offset in the form +HHMM or -HHMM (empty string if the the object is naive). (empty), +0000, -0400, +1030
So, in short, Python does not even adhere to its own string formatting directives.
I know datetime is already terrible in Python, but this really goes beyond unreasonable into the land of plain stupidity.
Tell me this isn't true.
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Oliver W. over 9 yearsHave you considered stripping the last colon from the isoformatted string and then parsing back to a datetime object? It's a workaround, that can still be done somewhat elegantly.
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Alex Urcioli over 9 years@OliverW. I did consider this, in the end I ended up giving in and installing python-dateutil. I don't actually consider this a good solution either. I think those who are responsible for python need to take a closer look at what they've done with datetime. As of now i've given up and will just jump through the hoops like everyone else does.
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Darren Ringer over 9 yearsI have always actually been particularly impressed with python for even HAVING functions like strptime and strftime, I never even took the time to notice this particular deficiency because as already stated, it can be rather elegantly avoided.
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notzippy over 7 yearsI agree, this is ridiculous - the native platform can convert to an ISO date but it cannot convert it back, except if you use another third party module.
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garlix over 4 yearsStarting from Python 3.7 a new functionality has been introduced to the
%z
:Changed in version 3.7: When the %z directive is provided to the strptime() method, the UTC offsets can have a colon as a separator between hours, minutes and seconds. For example, '+01:00:00' will be parsed as an offset of one hour. In addition, providing 'Z' is identical to '+00:00'.
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Oliver W. over 9 yearsYour solution doesn't address the problem that was laid out (and is pretty much a repetition of the possible duplicate that was already linked to). In the original problem, the OP has asked for an efficient way to parse the UTC offset, which has a colon in it.
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Daniele Venzano almost 9 yearsSad state of Python's datetime...
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Adam Barnes almost 8 yearsWorth noting that if your system's time is set to UTC, the timezone of the parsed date will be
tzlocal()
, which!= tzutc
in comparisons, according to this link: coderwall.com/p/dpauza/dateutil-parse-timezone -
raratiru over 6 years@DanieleVenzano I don't get it. How can this string return back in a more happy way?
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Daniele Venzano over 6 years@raratiru I was referring to the fact that you need an external module to parse a timestamp in ISO format, but you can generate one with the standard library. Inconsistencies make me sad.
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raratiru over 6 years@DanieleVenzano Oh, indeed I understand. This is a point, thank you!
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Luca over 6 yearsThis solution is good whenever installing one extra library is somewhat inconvenient (e.g. on Google Appengine)
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Konrad over 4 yearsIn python 3.7 there is a method
datetime.fromisoformat()
which is exactly the reverse forisoformat()