datetime TypeError: 'datetime.datetime' object has no attribute 'getitem'

Question

What am I doing wrong here?

import datetime

someday = datetime.datetime(2014, 9, 23, 0, 0)

someday = datetime.datetime.strptime(someday[:10], '%Y-%m-%d')
print someday

Error:

TypeError: 'datetime.datetime' object has no attribute '__getitem__'

What is the actual problem you're trying to solve here? If it's just "get the date part of a datetime," you can use the .date() method. — John Zwinck
– John Zwinck, Commented Jan 12, 2015 at 2:06
possible duplicate of TypeError: 'datetime.date' object has no attribute '__getitem__' — GLHF
– GLHF, Commented Jan 12, 2015 at 2:07

user2555451 · Accepted Answer · 2015-01-12 02:05:14Z

7

someday is a datetime object, which does not support slicing. So, doing someday[:10] raises a TypeError.

You need to convert someday into a string before you slice it:

someday = datetime.datetime.strptime(str(someday)[:10], '%Y-%m-%d')

Demo:

>>> import datetime
>>> someday = datetime.datetime(2014, 9, 23, 0, 0)
>>>
>>> someday  # This is a datetime object
datetime.datetime(2014, 9, 23, 0, 0)
>>> someday[:10] # Does not support slicing
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "<stdin>", line 1, in <module>
TypeError: 'datetime.datetime' object has no attribute '__getitem__'
>>>
>>> str(someday) # This returns a string
'2014-09-23 00:00:00'
>>> str(someday)[:10] # Supports slicing
'2014-09-23'
>>>

answered Jan 12, 2015 at 2:05

user2555451

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2 Comments

jfs Over a year ago

The conversions to and from string are unnecessary here. Just use print someday.date() instead.

user2555451 Over a year ago

@J.F.Sebastian - My answer was mainly focused on why the OP's slice was failing and how to get it working (with slicing). However, I agree that calling .date() is a lot more pythonic in this case. +1 for mentioning it. :)

jfs · Accepted Answer · 2015-01-16 15:41:07Z

1

someday is not a string therefore you won't get the substring by applying [:10]. It is a datetime object.

To get the date from the datetime object, just call .date() method:

print someday.date()

No need to convert to convert someday to string using str() only to convert it immediately back using datetime.strptime().

answered Jan 16, 2015 at 15:41

jfs

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