Convert String to Datetime and Vice Versa in Python

Python has extensive date and time manipulation capabilities.In this article we'll see in how is string with proper format can we converted to a datetime and the vice versa.

With strptime

This strptime function from datetime module can do the conversion from string to datetime by taking appropriate format specifiers.

Example

 Live Demo

import datetime
dt_str = 'September 19 2019 21:02:23 PM'
#Given date time
print("Given date time: \n",dt_str)
#Type check
print("Data Type: ",type(dt_str))
#Format
dtformat = '%B %d %Y %H:%M:%S %p'
datetime_val = datetime.datetime.strptime(dt_str, dtformat)
print("After converting to date time: \n",datetime_val)
#Type check
print("Data type: ",type(datetime_val))
# Reverting to string
dtstr_new=str(datetime_val)
print("The string Date time ",dtstr_new)
print("Data type: ",type(dtstr_new))

Output

Running the above code gives us the following result −

Given date time:
September 19 2019 21:02:23 PM
Data Type:
After converting to date time:
2019-09-19 21:02:23
Data type:
The string Date time 2019-09-19 21:02:23
Data type:

With str

The str function will convert its parameter to a string. So here we take a datetime value by using the today function and supply it as a parameter to the str function.

Example

 Live Demo

import datetime
print("Date time data type: \n",datetime.datetime.today())
print("Data type: \n",type(datetime.datetime.today()))
dtstr= str(datetime.datetime.today())
print("String Date time:\n ",dtstr)
print("Data type: \n",type(dtstr))

Output

Running the above code gives us the following result −

Date time data type:
2020-05-18 11:09:40.986027
Data type:

String Date time:
2020-05-18 11:09:40.986027
Data type: