Convert string date to timestamp in Python

Deep dive into conversion

Covering different date formats

Using strptime(), you can parse a multitude of date formats. For a date string like "31/01/2023" (DD/MM/YYYY), here's how:

from datetime import datetime

date_string = "31/01/2023"  # Euro-style dates, because we're sophisticated 🎩
date_format = "%d/%m/%Y"
datetime_obj = datetime.strptime(date_string, date_format)
timestamp = datetime_obj.timestamp()
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Ensure to match your date_format with your date_string.

Eliminating time-zone headaches

For a UTC timestamp, avoid time-zone problems with this:

from calendar import timegm
utc_timestamp = timegm(datetime_obj.utctimetuple())  # Bye, timezone issues 👋
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And, if your string date includes time zone info:

from datetime import datetime, timezone

datetime_obj = datetime.strptime(date_string, date_format).replace(tzinfo=timezone.utc)
timestamp = datetime_obj.timestamp()
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This explicitly sets the timezone to UTC.

Speeding up with third-party libraries

While datetime is versatile, ciso8601 is a faster choice for parsing ISO 8601 date strings:

import ciso8601

timestamp = ciso8601.parse_datetime(date_string).timestamp()  # ciso8601: You'll almost see it blushing at its own speed 🏎️💨
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Note that ciso8601 is tailored for the ISO 8601 format and thus, may not fit other formats.

Building robust conversion practices

Safeguarding with error handling

Shield your date parsing within a try-except block for error resiliency:

try:
    timestamp = datetime.strptime(date_string, date_format).timestamp()
except ValueError:
    print("Incorrect format or date")  # Oops! Something went wrong? Blame the error, not me :)
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Using strftime("%s") with caution

While strftime("%s") yields timestamps, it's platform-dependent. Use .timestamp() for greater compatibility:

timestamp = int(datetime_obj.strftime("%s"))  # Timestamps, now served as integers!
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Pandas for date-strings in data science

If you're a data science aficionado, pandas.to_datetime() comes real handy:

import pandas as pd

timestamp = pd.to_datetime(date_string).timestamp()  # Pandas, not just cute creatures! 🐼
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Beware the leap seconds

Timestamps have discontinuities due to leap seconds. Make manual adjustments as datetime libraries don't account for leap seconds.

Importing libraries and formatting accurately

Ensure valid import statements and accurate format specifiers for strptime to enjoy a smooth conversion.