Why does `datetime.strptime` get an incorrect date for Tuesday in the week 0 of 2015?

Question

I've found a error in python datetime.strptime function.

I've created datetime object base on the week number (%W), year (%Y) and day of week (%w). The date for Tuesday in the first week in 2015 is wrong:

>>> from datetime import datetime

>>> datetime.strptime('%s %s %s' % (0, 2015, 1), '%W %Y %w').date()
datetime.date(2014, 12, 29) # OK

>>> datetime.strptime('%s %s %s' % (0, 2015, 2), '%W %Y %w').date()
datetime.date(2015, 1, 1) # WRONG !!!

>>> datetime.strptime('%s %s %s' % (0, 2015, 3), '%W %Y %w').date()
datetime.date(2014, 12, 31) # OK

>>> datetime.strptime('%s %s %s' % (0, 2015, 4), '%W %Y %w').date()
datetime.date(2015, 1, 1) # OK

>>> datetime.strptime('%s %s %s' % (0, 2015, 5), '%W %Y %w').date()
datetime.date(2015, 1, 2) # OK

>>> datetime.strptime('%s %s %s' % (0, 2015, 6), '%W %Y %w').date()
datetime.date(2015, 1, 3) # OK

>>> datetime.strptime('%s %s %s' % (0, 2015, 0), '%W %Y %w').date()
datetime.date(2015, 1, 4) # OK

What should I do with this information?

Answer 1

I've looked over more years and I get the same puzzling behaviour, but I found some logic.

After reading the docs, I understand it a bit better:

%W - Week number of the year (Monday as the first day of the week) as a decimal number. All days in a new year preceding the first Monday are considered to be in week 0.

So, %W only fills the correct values in week 0 for the days in the new year! This is perfectly consistent with the following results:

2015:

>>> for i in range(7):
...     datetime.strptime('%s %s %s' % (0, 2015, i), '%W %Y %w').date()
... 
datetime.date(2015, 1, 4)
datetime.date(2014, 12, 29)
datetime.date(2015, 1, 1)
datetime.date(2014, 12, 31)
datetime.date(2015, 1, 1) # start of year
datetime.date(2015, 1, 2)
datetime.date(2015, 1, 3)

2016:

>>> for i in range(7):
...     datetime.strptime('%s %s %s' % (0, 2016, i), '%W %Y %w').date()
... 
datetime.date(2016, 1, 3)
datetime.date(2015, 12, 28)
datetime.date(2015, 12, 29)
datetime.date(2016, 1, 1)
datetime.date(2015, 12, 31)
datetime.date(2016, 1, 1) # start of year
datetime.date(2016, 1, 2)

2017:

>>> for i in range(7):
...     datetime.strptime('%s %s %s' % (0, 2017, i), '%W %Y %w').date()
... 
datetime.date(2017, 1, 1)
datetime.date(2016, 12, 26)
datetime.date(2016, 12, 27)
datetime.date(2016, 12, 28)
datetime.date(2016, 12, 29)
datetime.date(2017, 1, 1)
datetime.date(2016, 12, 31)
# ... start of year

2018:

>>> for i in range(7):
...     datetime.strptime('%s %s %s' % (0, 2018, i), '%W %Y %w').date()
... 
datetime.date(2018, 1, 7)
datetime.date(2018, 1, 1) # start of year
datetime.date(2018, 1, 2)
datetime.date(2018, 1, 3)
datetime.date(2018, 1, 4)
datetime.date(2018, 1, 5)
datetime.date(2018, 1, 6)

So after the year actually begins, the behaviour seems predictable and consistent with the docs.