Changing string to UTC to dateTime object

Question

I have time = '2020-06-24T13:30:00-04:00'. How can I change it to a dateTime object in UTC time. I would prefer not to use pd.Timestamp(time).tz_convert("UTC").to_pydatetime() because it returns a weird output that would look like this datetime.datetime(2020, 6, 24, 17, 30, tzinfo=<UTC>). As a result, when I check for equality with datetime.datetime(2020, 6, 24, 17, 30), it return False.

Edit:

import datetime
import pytz

time = '2020-06-24T13:30:00-04:00

dt = datetime.datetime(2020, 6, 24, 17, 30)
print("dt: ",dt)

so = datetime.datetime.strptime(time, '%Y-%m-%dT%H:%M:%S%z').astimezone(pytz.utc)
print("so:",so)

print(dt == so)

outputs

dt: 2020-06-24 17:30:00
so: 2020-06-24 17:30:00+00:00
False

How can I get it to properly evaluate to True?

FObersteiner · Accepted Answer · 2020-06-24 17:59:03Z

3

#1 Since your string is ISO 8601 compatible, use fromisoformat() on Python 3.7+:

from datetime import datetime, timezone

s = '2020-06-24T13:30:00-04:00'

dtobj = datetime.fromisoformat(s)
# dtobj
# datetime.datetime(2020, 6, 24, 13, 30, tzinfo=datetime.timezone(datetime.timedelta(days=-1, seconds=72000)))

Note that this will give you a timezone-aware datetime object; the tzinfo property is a UTC offset. You can easily convert that to UTC using astimezone():

dtobj_utc = dtobj.astimezone(timezone.utc)
# dtobj_utc
# datetime.datetime(2020, 6, 24, 17, 30, tzinfo=datetime.timezone.utc)

#2 You can achieve the same with strptime (also Python3.7+ according to this):

dtobj = datetime.strptime(s, '%Y-%m-%dT%H:%M:%S%z')
dtobj_utc = dtobj.astimezone(timezone.utc)
# dtobj_utc
# datetime.datetime(2020, 6, 24, 17, 30, tzinfo=datetime.timezone.utc)

#3 If you want to turn the result into a naive datetime object, i.e. remove the tzinfo property, replace with None:

dtobj_utc_naive = dtobj_utc.replace(tzinfo=None)
# dtobj_utc_naive
# datetime.datetime(2020, 6, 24, 17, 30)

#4 For older Python versions, you should be able to use dateutil's parser:

from dateutil import parser
dtobj = parser.parse(s)
dtobj_utc = dtobj.astimezone(timezone.utc)
dtobj_utc_naive = dtobj_utc.replace(tzinfo=None)
# dtobj_utc_naive
# datetime.datetime(2020, 6, 24, 17, 30)

edited Jun 24, 2020 at 17:59

answered Jun 24, 2020 at 17:35

FObersteiner

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2 Comments

Danlo9 Over a year ago

Are there any benefits to a naive datetime object?

FObersteiner Over a year ago

@Danlo9: good question... it depends. In principle, it is better to have a timezone info, unless you know (for sure) that all the datetime objects you work with belong to the same timezone. Also keep in mind that you shouldn't mix up naive and aware datetime objects - use one or the other consistently (to keep you sane).

Edwin Cruz · Accepted Answer · 2020-06-24 17:52:26Z

0

Alright so my previous answer was sort of wack because I did not understand your issue entirely so I am rewriting it. You problem is that you are constructing a datetime object from a string and it is timezone aware(UTC). However, whenever you make a datetime object in python, dt = datetime.datetime(2020, 6, 24, 17, 30), it is creating it but with no timezone information (which you can check using .tzinfo on it). All you would need to do is make dt timezone aware when you first create it. See below my code snippit.


import datetime

time = '2020-06-24T13:30:00-04:00'

dt = datetime.datetime(2020, 6, 24, 17, 30, tzinfo=datetime.timezone.utc)

print("dt: ",dt.tzinfo)

so = datetime.datetime.strptime(time, '%Y-%m-%dT%H:%M:%S%z')

print("so:",so.tzinfo)

print(dt == so)

edited Jun 24, 2020 at 17:52

answered Jun 24, 2020 at 16:39

Edwin Cruz

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5 Comments

Danlo9 Over a year ago

This doesn't change the time to UTC though... it returns 2020-06-24 13:30:00-04:00 but I need it to be 2020-06-24 17:30:00

Edwin Cruz Over a year ago

I would suggest making what you are comparing it to timezone aware to then compare.

Edwin Cruz Over a year ago

That entire answer was not optimal take a look at the new answer.

FObersteiner Over a year ago

now you import pytz, which you also don't need since there is datetime.timezone.utc ;-) Sidenote: datetime.timezone.utc and pytz.utc do not compare equal.

Edwin Cruz Over a year ago

Well that was from previous tests and I did not remove the timezone variable or the pytz import but the code does work properly and the explanation is correct.

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