TypeError: strptime() argument 1 must be str, not datetime.date Python

Question

Facing issues while converting date to string,

print(type(from_date))
from_date = datetime.datetime.strptime(from_date, '%Y-%m-%d').date()

My from_date value is in an ini file,

from_date = 2018-01-01

My TraceBack log is,

Traceback (most recent call last):
File "Flexi_DailyToWeekly.py", line 87, in <module>
tuesday = get_data(session,from_keyspace, from_table, to_keyspace, to_table_tuesday, to_table_wednesday, to_table_thursday, to_table_friday, from_date, to_date)
File "Flexi_DailyToWeekly.py", line 11, in get_data
from_date = datetime.datetime.strptime(from_date, '%Y-%m-%d')
TypeError: strptime() argument 1 must be str, not datetime.date'

I've used type(from_date) which returns from_date as a string.

Also tried,

from_date = datetime.datetime.strptime(str(from_date), '%Y-%m-%d').date()

still the same error persists.

Changed from_date as suggested in the answers below,

from_date = "2018-01-01"

The error persisits,

Traceback (most recent call last):
File "Flexi_DailyToWeekly.py", line 82, in <module>
from_date = datetime.datetime.strptime(from_date, '%Y-%m-%d').date()
File "/usr/lib/python3.5/_strptime.py", line 510, in _strptime_datetime
tt, fraction = _strptime(data_string, format)
File "/usr/lib/python3.5/_strptime.py", line 343, in _strptime
(data_string, format))
ValueError: time data '"2018-01-01"' does not match format '%Y-%m-%d'

Answer 1

As per docs, The datetime.strptime() method accepts a date_string as the first argument. So, I tried this:

import datetime
test = datetime.datetime.strptime('2018-01-01', '%Y-%m-%d').date()
print(test)
#datetime.date(2018, 1, 1)

If I do from_date = 2018-01-01, I get an invalid token error for the type of from_date:

   from_date = 2018-01-01
   print(type(from_date))

   File "<ipython-input-7-9e5449277912>", line 2
   from_date = 2018-01-01
                      ^
   SyntaxError: invalid token

This means that from_date must be a string. You could use from_date = '2018-01-01' and that would work. If I check the type of from_date now, I will get a type of class string:

from_date = '2018-01-01'
print(type(from_date))
#<class 'str'>

But when I look at the first Traceback log, it raises a TypeError. This means that the value stored in from_date is of type datetime.date. Consider the following:

import datetime
from_date = datetime.date(2018, 1, 1)
test = datetime.datetime.strptime(str(from_date), '%Y-%m-%d').date()
print(test)
#2018-01-01

Answer 2

Replace

from_date = 2018-01-01

to

from_date : 2018-01-01

in ini file

Tested with code :

import configparser
import datetime
config = configparser.ConfigParser()
config.read('Test.ini')
print (config['DEFAULT']['date'])
from_date = config['DEFAULT']['date']
print(type(from_date))
from_date = datetime.datetime.strptime(from_date, '%Y-%m-%d').date()
print (from_date)

and Test.ini is

[DEFAULT]
date : 2018-1-1

output is :

2018-1-1
<class 'str'>
2018-01-01