Python .strptime()

.strptime() is a method from Python’s time module. It converts a date and/or time string into a corresponding struct_time object, based on the format directives provided.

Note: strptime() with the ‘p’ for ‘parse’ is for reading a string, not writing one.

Syntax

time.strptime(string, format)

Parameters:

• string (str): The date and/or time string to be parsed and converted.
• format (str): The format string specifying the expected format of the first parameter string.

Return value:

Returns a struct_time object with the parsed date and time.

The format parameter uses specific directives to represent the expected format of string. These directives are the same ones as those used by strftime(), and some common examples include:

Note: Value 61 is only supported for historical reasons (leap seconds).

Example

The following example shows how to convert a date string into a struct_time object using time.strptime():

import time

# Define the date string and its corresponding format
date_string = "16 Dec 97"
format_string = "%d %b %y"

# Parse the date string into a struct_time object
converted_time = time.strptime(date_string, format_string)
print(converted_time)

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An example output of this code is:

time.struct_time(tm_year=1997, tm_mon=12, tm_mday=16, tm_hour=0, tm_min=0, tm_sec=0, tm_wday=1, tm_yday=350, tm_isdst=-1)

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Codebyte Example

This example shows how to parse a date string and access information from the struct_time object:

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