Python: How to convert string into datetime [duplicate]

Question

Possible Duplicate:
Converting string into datetime

I am parsing an XML file that gives me the time in the respective isoformat:

tc1 = 2012-09-28T16:41:12.9976565
tc2 = 2012-09-28T23:57:44.6636597

But it is being treated as a string when I retrieve this from the XML file. I have two such time values and i need to do a diff between the two so as to find delta. But since it is a string I can not directly do tc2-tc1. But since they are already in isoformat for datetime, how do i get python to recognize it as datetime?

thanks.

Answer 1

Use the datetime.strptime method:

import datetime
datetime.datetime.strptime(your_string, "%Y-%m-%dT%H:%M:%S.%f")

The link provided presents the different format directives. Note that the microseconds are limited to the range [0,999999], meaning that a ValueError will be raised with your example (you're using 1/10us): you need to truncate your string to drop the final character.

Answer 2

You can use the python-dateutil parse() function, it's more flexible than strptime. Hope this help you.