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Python Dates and Times in Python (2014) Dates and Times Dating Methods

Posted by Safae Merigh
Safae Merigh
9,827 Points

ValueError : timedata does not match format

I have a function that accepts a date written by the user. This date is a string. I want to convert it to a date. I would write :

def user_date() : date = input("Enter Date (mm/dd/yyyy) ") my_date = datetime.datetime.strptime("date", "%m-%d-%Y")

I get the error : ValueError: time data 'user_input_date' does not match format '%m-%d-%Y'

Why is that?

1 Answer

boi
boi
14,242 Points
boi
boi
14,242 Points 
import datetime

def user_date() : 
    date = input("Enter Date (mm/dd/yyyy) ") 👈 #Here you used a slash ( / ), use hyphen ( - ) instead, because you 
                                                # declared a hyphen as a format not slash ( / ).     
    my_date = datetime.datetime.strptime("date", "%m-%d-%Y") 👈#You're "date" is a string literal, it should be a variable.
    return my_date

Fix

import datetime


def user_date():
    date = input("Enter Date (mm-dd-yyyy) ")
    return datetime.datetime.strptime(date, "%m-%d-%Y")