How to Convert Integer to Datetime in Pandas DataFrame?

Difficulty Level : Easy
Last Updated : 10 Jul, 2020

Let’s discuss how to convert an Integer to Datetime in it. Now to convert Integers to Datetime in Pandas DataFrame, we can use the following syntax:

df[‘DataFrame Column’] = pd.to_datetime(df[‘DataFrame Column’], format=specify your format)

Note: The integers data must match the format specified.

Example #1:

Python

# importing pandas package 
import pandas as pd 
  
# creating a dataframe 
values = {'Dates':  [20190902, 20190913, 20190921], 
          'Attendance': ['Attended', 'Not Attended', 'Attended'] 
          } 
  
df = pd.DataFrame(values, columns=['Dates', 'Attendance']) 
  
# display 
print(df) 
print(df.dtypes) 

Output:

As we can see, the data type for the ‘Dates’ column is Integer. Now to convert it into Datetime we use the previously mentioned syntax. Since in this example the date format is yyyymmdd, the date format can be represented as follows:

format= '%Y%m%d'

For our example, the complete code to convert the integers to DateTime would be:

Python

# importing pandas package 
import pandas as pd 
  
# creating the dataframe 
values = {'Dates':  [20190902, 20190913, 20190921], 
          'Attendance': ['Attended', 'Not Attended', 'Attended'] 
          } 
  
df = pd.DataFrame(values, columns=['Dates', 'Attendance']) 
  
# converting the integers to datetime format 
df['Dates'] = pd.to_datetime(df['Dates'], format='%Y%m%d') 
  
# display 
print(df) 
print(df.dtypes) 

Output:

Example #2: Now, suppose the Dataframe has a date in format yymmdd. In this case, the date format would now contain ‘y’ in lowercase:

format='%y%m%d'

So the complete Python code would look as follows:

Python

# importing pandas package 
import pandas as pd 
  
# creating dataframe 
values = {'Dates':  [190902, 190913, 190921], 
          'Attendance': ['Attended', 'Not Attended', 'Attended'] 
          } 
  
df = pd.DataFrame(values, columns=['Dates', 'Attendance']) 
  
# changing the integer dates to datetime format 
df['Dates'] = pd.to_datetime(df['Dates'], format='%y%m%d') 
  
# display 
print(df) 
print(df.dtypes) 

Output:

Example #3: Now, let’s suppose that your integers contain both date and time. In that case, the format that you should specify is:

format='%Y%m%d%H%M%S'

So the full Python code would be:

Python

# importing pandas package 
import pandas as pd 
  
# creating dataframe 
values = {'Dates': [20190902093000, 20190913093000, 20190921200000], 
          'Attendance': ['Attended', 'Not Attended', 'Attended'] 
          } 
  
df = pd.DataFrame(values, columns=['Dates', 'Attendance']) 
  
# changing integer values to datetime format 
df['Dates'] = pd.to_datetime(df['Dates'], format='%Y%m%d%H%M%S') 
  
# display 
print(df) 
print(df.dtypes) 

Output:

Example #4: Consider this DataFrame with microseconds in our DateTime values. In this case, the format should be specified as:

format='%Y%m%d%H%M%S%F'

So the full Python code will be:

Python

# importing pandas package 
import pandas as pd 
  
# creating dataframe 
values = {'Dates':  [20190902093000912, 20190913093000444,  
                     20190921200000009], 
          'Attendance': ['Attended', 'Not Attended', 'Attended'] 
          } 
  
df = pd.DataFrame(values, columns=['Dates', 'Attendance']) 
  
# changing the integer dates to datetime format 
df['Dates'] = pd.to_datetime(df['Dates'], format='%Y%m%d%H%M%S%F') 
  
# display 
print(df) 
print(df.dtypes) 