Answer by Patrick Harrington for Converting string into datetime

datetime.strptime is the main routine for parsing strings into datetimes. It can handle all sorts of formats, with the format determined by a format string you give it:

from datetime import datetime

datetime_object = datetime.strptime('Jun 1 2005  1:33PM', '%b %d %Y %I:%M%p')

The resulting datetime object is timezone-naive.

Links:

• Python documentation for strptime: Python 2, Python 3

• Python documentation for strptime/strftime format strings: Python 2, Python 3

• strftime.org is also a really nice reference for strftime

Notes:

• strptime = "string parse time"
• strftime = "string format time"
• Pronounce it out loud today & you won't have to search for it again in 6 months.