Python dateutil: AttributeError: module 'dateutil' has no attribute 'parse'

Question

Trying to use dateutil to parse dates from an unknown format but none of the documented methods are found?

CODE:

import dateutil
print(dateutil.parser.parse("24.05.2017"))
exit(1)

ERROR:

Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "test.py", line 2, in <module>
    print(dateutil.parser.parse("24.05.2017"))
AttributeError: module 'dateutil' has no attribute 'parser'

Answer 1

As an alternative to the accepted answer, the dotted notation is still valid if you change the import:

import dateutil.parser
print(dateutil.parser.parse("24.05.2017"))

Answer 2

You can fix this error by modifying your code slightly:

from dateutil import parser
print(parser.parse("24.05.2017"))

This change is needed because of how the dateutil package internally organizes it's modules.