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How to convert a string to a date in Python

How to convert a string to a date in Python.

Here is a detailed step-by-step tutorial on how to convert a string to a date in Python:

Step 1: Import the datetime module First, you need to import the datetime module, which provides classes for working with dates and times in Python. You can do this by adding the following line at the beginning of your code:

import datetime

Step 2: Specify the format of the input string Next, you need to specify the format of the string you want to convert to a date. The format should match the structure of the string. For example, if your string is in the format "dd-mm-yyyy", you should use the format string "%d-%m-%Y".

Step 3: Use the strptime() function to convert the string to a date object To convert the string to a date object, you can use the strptime() function provided by the datetime module. This function takes two arguments: the string to be converted and the format string.

Here is an example that converts the string "25-12-2021" to a date object:

date_string = "25-12-2021"
date_format = "%d-%m-%Y"
date_object = datetime.datetime.strptime(date_string, date_format).date()

In this example, strptime() parses the date string using the specified format and returns a datetime object. The .date() method is then used to extract only the date part from the datetime object.

Step 4: Access the date components Once you have converted the string to a date object, you can access its components such as the year, month, and day using the following attributes:

  • year: returns the year as an integer
  • month: returns the month as an integer (1-12)
  • day: returns the day as an integer (1-31)

Here is an example that demonstrates how to access the individual components of the date object:

print(date_object.year)   # Output: 2021
print(date_object.month)  # Output: 12
print(date_object.day)    # Output: 25

Step 5: Optional - Format the date object as a string If you need to convert the date object back to a string in a different format, you can use the strftime() method. This method takes a format string as an argument and returns a formatted string representation of the date.

Here is an example that formats the date object as a string in the format "yyyy-mm-dd":

formatted_date = date_object.strftime("%Y-%m-%d")
print(formatted_date)  # Output: 2021-12-25

That's it! You have successfully converted a string to a date in Python. Remember to import the datetime module, specify the format of the input string, use strptime() to convert the string to a date object, and then access the date components or format the date object as a string if needed.