Convert string to datetime in Python with timezone

Prerequisite: Datetime module

In this article, we will learn how to get datetime object from time string using Python.

To convert a time string into datetime object, datetime.strptime() function of datetime module is used. This function returns datetime object. 

Syntax : datetime.strptime(date_string, format)

Parameters :

• date_string : Specified time string containing of which datetime object is required. **Required
• format : Abbreviation format of date_string

Returns : Returns the datetime object of given date_string

List of the acceptable format that can be passed to strptime():

Directive	Meaning	Output Format
%Y	Year in four digits	2018, 2019 etc
%m	Month as a zero-padded decimal number.	01, 02, …, 12
%b	Month as locale’s abbreviated name.	Jan, Feb, …, Dec
%d	Day of the month as a zero-padded decimal number.	01, 02, …, 31
%H	Hour (24-hour clock) as a zero-padded decimal number.	00, 01, …, 23
%I	Hour (12-hour clock) as a zero-padded decimal number.	01, 02, …, 12
%M	Minute as a zero-padded decimal number.	00, 01, …, 59
%S	Second as a zero-padded decimal number.	00, 01, …, 59
%f	Microsecond as a decimal number, zero-padded on the left.	000000, 000001, …, 999999
%p	Locale’s equivalent of either AM or PM	AM, PM, am, pm
%z	UTC offset in the form ±HHMM	+0000, -0400, +0530
%a	Abbreviated weekday name.	Sun, Mon, …

Example 1: Converting datetime string to datetime

Python3

# Python3 code to demonstrate
# Getting datetime object using a date_string

# importing datetime module
import datetime

# datestring for which datetime_obj required
date_string = '2021-09-01 15:27:05.004573 +0530'
print("string datetime: ")
print(date_string)
print("datestring class is :", type(date_string))

# using strptime() to get datetime object
datetime_obj = datetime.datetime.strptime(
    date_string, '%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S.%f %z')

print("converted to datetime:")

# Printing datetime
print(datetime_obj)

# Checking class of datetime_obj.
print("datetime_obj class is :", type(datetime_obj))

Output:

string datetime: 
2021-09-01 15:27:05.004573 +0530
datestring class is : <class 'str'>
converted to datetime:
2021-09-01 15:27:05.004573+05:30
datetime_obj class is : <class 'datetime.datetime'>

Example 2: Converting datetime string to datetime

Python3

# Python3 code to demonstrate
# Getting datetime object using a date_string

# importing datetime module
import datetime

# datestring for which datetime_obj required
date_string = '2021-09-01 15:27:05'

# using strptime() to get datetime object
datetime_obj = datetime.datetime.strptime(date_string, '%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S')

# Printing datetime
print(datetime_obj)

Output:

2021-09-01 15:27:05

In this example, microseconds and time zone parts are removed from first example, so we need to remove microseconds and time zone abbreviations also from format string

Example 3: Converting datetime string to datetime

Python3

# Python3 code to demonstrate
# Getting datetime object using a date_string

# importing datetime module
import datetime

# datestring for which datetime_obj required
date_string = 'Sep 01 2021 03:27:05 PM'

# using strptime() to get datetime object
datetime_obj = datetime.datetime.strptime(date_string, '%b %d %Y %I:%M:%S %p')

# Printing datetime
print(datetime_obj)

Output:

2021-09-01 15:27:05