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

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

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: