Using datetime.strptime with microseconds (ValueError: unconverted data remains: :00)

Question

I'm trying to convert this date '2021-09-29 00:05:00+00:00' into "str" using the following code:

date1 = '2021-09-29 00:05:00+00:00'

date1 = datetime.datetime.strptime(date1,'%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S+%f')

but I get the error:

"ValueError: unconverted data remains: :00".

I don't know how to deal with the microseconds. Any help to use strptime with that date format would be more than appreciated!

Thanks in advance.

That’s not microseconds, but a time zone offset in hours and minutes. — Mark Tolonen, Dec 28 '21 at 16:50
What does the `00:00` actually mean? That definitely shouldn't be milliseconds, but I don't think it's a time zone offset neither. — Yevgeniy Kosmak, Dec 28 '21 at 16:53
@MarkTolonen I asked OP if they know what it is. I understand your assumption, but I'm not sure if it's right. — Yevgeniy Kosmak, Dec 28 '21 at 16:58
Does this answer your question? [How do I parse an ISO 8601-formatted date?](https://stackoverflow.com/questions/127803/how-do-i-parse-an-iso-8601-formatted-date) — FObersteiner, Dec 28 '21 at 17:05
@MarkTolonen tested it and yeah, you definitely have to be right. Didn't know that the standard representation of timezone offset in `strptime` with `%z` flag is `[+-]\d{2}:\d{2}`. — Yevgeniy Kosmak, Dec 28 '21 at 17:10

Mark Tolonen · Answer 1 · 2021-12-29T00:49:08.567

The +00:00 offset is a timezone offset in hours and minutes. Per the strftime() and strptime() Format Codes documentation, use %z to parse:

Directive	Meaning	Example	Notes
%z	UTC offset in the form ±HHMM[SS[.ffffff]] (empty string if the object is naive)	(empty), +0000, -0400, +1030, +063415, -030712.345216	(6)

Syntax for the colon(:) wasn't supported until Python 3.7, per a detail in note 6:

Changed in version 3.7: When the %z directive is provided to the strptime() method, the UTC offsets can have a colon as a separator between hours, minutes and seconds. For example, '+01:00:00' will be parsed as an offset of one hour. In addition, providing 'Z' is identical to '+00:00'.

from datetime import datetime

s = '2021-09-29 00:05:00+00:00'
t = datetime.strptime(s,'%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S%z')
print(t)

Output:

2021-09-29 00:05:00+00:00

Using datetime.strptime with microseconds (ValueError: unconverted data remains: :00)

1 Answers1