Python : How to convert a timestamp string to a datetime object using datetime.strptime()

In this article we will discuss how to convert timestamp in different string formats to a datetime class object in Python.

String to datetime object using datetime.strptime()

Python’s datetime module provides a datetime class, which has a method to convert string to a datetime object i.e.

If accepts a string containing the timestamp and a format string containing the format codes representing the date time elements in date_string. It parses the string according to format codes and returns a datetime object created from it.

To use this import datetime class from datetime module i.e.

Let’s see some examples

Example 1:

Let’s convert a time string in format YYYY-MM-DDTHH::MM::SS.MICROS to a datetime object i.e.

Output:

Format string used here is : ‘%Y-%m-%dT%H::%M::%S.%f‘

Complete list of format code :

Format Codes	Description	Example
%d	Day of the month as a zero-padded decimal number	01, 02, 03, 04 …, 31
%a	Weekday as abbreviated name	Sun, Mon, …, Sat
%A	Weekday as full name	Sunday, Monday, …, Saturday
%m	Month as a zero-padded decimal number	01, 02, 03, 04 …, 12
%b	Month as abbreviated name	Jan, Feb, …, Dec
%B	Month as full name	January, February, …, December
%y	Year without century as a zero-padded decimal number	00, 01, …, 99
%Y	Year with century as a decimal number	0001, …, 2018, …, 9999
%H	Hour (24-hour clock) as a zero-padded decimal number	01, 02, 03, 04 …, 23
%M	Minute as a zero-padded decimal number	01, 02, 03, 04 …, 59
%S	Second as a zero-padded decimal number	01, 02, 03, 04 …, 59
%f	Microsecond as a decimal number, zero-padded on the left	000000, 000001, …, 999999
%I	Hour (12-hour clock) as a zero-padded decimal number	01, 02, 03, 04 …, 12
%p	Locale’s equivalent of either AM or PM	AM , PM
%j	Day of the year as a zero-padded decimal number	01, 02, 03, 04 …, 366

Let’s see some other examples :

Example 2:

Let’s convert a timestamp string in format DD/MM/YYYY HH::MM::SS to a datetime object i.e.

Output:

Example 3:

Create Date Time Object from date string only in ‘DD MMM YYYY‘ format

Output:

Example 4:

Create datetime Object from time string only in ‘HH:MM:SS AP‘ format

Output:

Example 5:

Create datetime Object from timestamp scattered in a text.

Some time our timestamp is embedded in a text like,

Let’s see how to convert timestamp in this string to a date time object with format codes mixed in text i.e.

Output:

Complete example is as follows,

Output:

 

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