Strftime and Strptime In Python

In this post, we will learn about strftime() and strptime() methods from Python datetime package.

Python Strftime Format

The strftime converts date object to a string date.

The syntax of strftime() method is...

dateobject.strftime(format)

Where format is the desired format of date string that user wants. Format is built using codes shown in the table below...

Code Meaning
%a Weekday as Sun, Mon
%A Weekday as full name as Sunday, Monday
%w Weekday as decimal no as 0,1,2...
%d Day of month as 01,02
%b Months as Jan, Feb
%B Months as January, February
%m Months as 01,02
%y Year without century as 11,12,13
%Y Year with century 2011,2012
%H 24 Hours clock from 00 to 23
%I 12 Hours clock from 01 to 12
%p AM, PM
%M Minutes from 00 to 59
%S Seconds from 00 to 59
%f Microseconds 6 decimal numbers

Datetime To String Python using strftime()

Example: Convert current time to date string...

In [8]:
import datetime 
from datetime import datetime
now = datetime.now()
print(now)

2021-03-07 23:24:11.192196

Let us convert the above datetime object to datetime string now.

In [2]:
now.strftime("%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S")
Out[2]:
'2021-03-07 23:16:41'

If you want to print month as locale’s abbreviated name, replace %m with %b as shown below...

In [3]:
now.strftime("%Y-%b-%d %H:%M:%S")
Out[3]:
'2021-Mar-07 23:16:41'

Another example...

In [4]:
now.strftime("%Y/%b/%A %H:%M:%S")
Out[4]:
'2021/Mar/Sunday 23:16:41'

Date To String Python using strftime()

Date to string is quite similar to datetime to string Python conversion.

Example: Convert current date object to Python date string.

In [5]:
today = datetime.today()
print(today)

2021-03-07 23:22:15.341074

Let us convert the above date object to Python date string using strftime().

In [6]:
today.strftime("%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S")
Out[6]:
'2021-03-07 23:22:15'

Python Strftime Milliseconds

To get a date string with milliseconds, use %f format code at the end as shown below...

In [7]:
today = datetime.today()
today.strftime("%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S.%f")
Out[7]:
'2021-03-07 23:23:50.851344'

Python Strptime Format

Strptime python is used to convert string to datetime object.

strptime(date_string, format)

example:

strptime("9/23/20", "%d/%m/%y")

Note - format "%d/%m/%y" represents the the corresponding "9/23/20" format. The output of the above command will be a Python datetime object.

The format is constructed using pre-defined codes. There are many codes to choose from. The most important ones are listed below.

Code Meaning
%a Weekday as Sun, Mon
%A Weekday as full name as Sunday, Monday
%w Weekday as decimal no as 0,1,2...
%d Day of month as 01,02
%b Months as Jan, Feb
%B Months as January, February
%m Months as 01,02
%y Year without century as 11,12,13
%Y Year with century 2011,2012
%H 24 Hours clock from 00 to 23
%I 12 Hours clock from 01 to 12
%p AM, PM
%M Minutes from 00 to 59
%S Seconds from 00 to 59
%f Microseconds 6 decimal numbers

Python Datetime Strptime

Example: Convert date string to Python datetime object.

In [9]:
import datetime
datetime.datetime.strptime("09/23/2030 8:28","%m/%d/%Y %H:%M")
Out[9]:
datetime.datetime(2030, 9, 23, 8, 28)

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