How do I test if an object is a pandas datetime index?

Question

If I use type on a DataFrame which I know has a datetime index, I get:

In [17]: type(df.index) Out[17]: pandas.tseries.index.DatetimeIndex 

but when I test it, I get:

In [18]: type(df.index) == 'pandas.tseries.index.DatetimeIndex' Out[18]: False 

I know I assumed the type of type is a string, but I really don't know what else to try, and searching has resulted in nothing.

Answer 1

You can use isinstance of the DatetimeIndex class:

In [11]: dates = pd.date_range('20130101', periods=6)  In [12]: dates Out[12]:  <class 'pandas.tseries.index.DatetimeIndex'> [2013-01-01 00:00:00, ..., 2013-01-06 00:00:00] Length: 6, Freq: D, Timezone: None  In [13]: isinstance(dates, pd.DatetimeIndex) Out[13]: True 

Answer 2

What did you import Pandas as?

If you are following the guide in the documentation and did something like:

import pandas as pd dates = pd.date_range('20130101', periods=6)  type(dates[0])  pandas.tslib.TimestampTimestamp('2013-01-01 00:00:00', tz=None)  type(dates[0]) == pandas.tslib.Timestamp False   # this throws NameError since you didn't import as pandas  type(dates[0]) == pd.tslib.Timestamp True   # this works because we imported Pandas as pd 

Out of habit I neglected to mention as @M4rtini highlighted that you should not be using a string to compare equivalency.