Cannot use datetime.datetime.strptime, got an AttributeError instead

Question

I have two strings in python.

time_array1='09-JAN-2014 01:19'
time_array2='09-JAN-2014 01:01'

I need to find the time difference and I am doing:

print time_array1
print time_array2
FMT = '%d-%m-%Y %H:%M'
datetime_object1= datetime.datetime.strptime(time_array1, FMT)
print datetime_object1
datetime_object2= datetime.datetime.strptime(time_array2, FMT)
print datetime_object2
diff=datetime_object1 - datetime_object2
print diff

but I am getting the following error:

    datetime_object1= datetime.datetime.strptime(time_array1, FMT)
AttributeError: type object 'datetime.datetime' has no attribute 'strptime'

Is there any alternative way through which I can do it. It seems the python library doesn't have strptime attribute.

What version of Python are you using? The function was added in Python 2.5. — Martijn Pieters
– Martijn Pieters, Commented Mar 21, 2014 at 13:00

Martijn Pieters · Accepted Answer · 2014-03-21 13:02:43Z

1

The strptime method was added in python 2.5; if you are using an older version use the following code instead:

import datetime, time
datetime_object1 = datetime.datetime(*time.strptime(time_array1, FMT)[:6])

Your months are abbreviations, use the %b to parse that instead of %m.

Demo:

>>> import datetime, time
>>> time_array1='09-JAN-2014 01:19'
>>> time_array2='09-JAN-2014 01:01'
>>> FMT = '%d-%b-%Y %H:%M'
>>> datetime.datetime(*time.strptime(time_array1, FMT)[:6])
datetime.datetime(2014, 1, 9, 1, 19)
>>> datetime.datetime(*time.strptime(time_array2, FMT)[:6])
datetime.datetime(2014, 1, 9, 1, 1)

answered Mar 21, 2014 at 13:02

Martijn Pieters

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4 Comments

Debayan Over a year ago

The time_array1 and timearray2 are not constant. The code wherein I'll take the insert_ts from database and take the difference between two consecutive insert_ts. So time_array1 and time_array2 will be changing. Now when I did datetime_object1=datetime.datetime(*time.strptime(time_array1, FMT)[:6]) I got 2014-03-21 12:04:00 and and when I did datetime_object2= datetime.datetime(*time.strptime(time_array2, FMT)[:6]) I got 2014-03-21 12:12:00 and I did the diff which gave me 0:08:00 but I got an error in script saying : ValueError: time data did not match format: data=X X fmt=%d-%b-%Y %H:%M

Martijn Pieters Over a year ago

Looks like you have data in your database that is not consistent. Either there is a row that uses a different format or is not a date altogether. Try catching the exception and printing the string that caused the parse to fail.

Debayan Over a year ago

Yes got the error. some of the data is coming as 'X X' as part of the insert_ts.

Martijn Pieters Over a year ago

Clearly that's not a value that can be pasted into a datetime object. You'll need to adjust your code to skip those.

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