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Python Dates and Times in Python (2014) Dates and Times strftime & strptime

Posted by asal dadidom
asal dadidom
90 Points

datetime code

should be smth simple. how to assing datetime to some variable.

timestrings.py 
import datetime
## Examples
# to_string(datetime_object) => "24 September 2012"
# from_string("09/24/12 18:30", "%m/%d/%y %H:%M") => datetime
def to_string(datetime):
    to_string = datetime.datetime(datetime)
    return to_string.strftime('d% B% Y%')

2 Answers

Ryan S
Ryan S
27,276 Points
Ryan S
Ryan S
27,276 Points

Hi Asal,

There are a few things to clear up.

First, be careful about naming variables. You have a variable named to_string as well as a function named to_string. Because Python is a dynamically typed language, this can cause problems. Also, try not to use keywords such as 'datetime' as a variable name, since Python already has that word reserved in the datetime library. In the example they use 'datetime_object' as an argument, but it can be whatever you want as long as it's unique.

The second is that the function will take a datetime as an argument, so you don't need to try and convert it to a datetime since it already is one. All you need to do is convert it to a string.

The third is that your %'s are on the wrong side of the letters. They should come before the letters.

import datetime

def to_string(datetime_object):
    return datetime_object.strftime('%d %B %Y')

Hope this helps,

asal dadidom
asal dadidom
90 Points
asal dadidom
asal dadidom
90 Points

Thanks Ryan. Of course it does help alot. I tried such code as well. But it must be the wrong parameter name that did not work. Thanks again. Will try to implement this new knowledge.