How do I best parse a date string in the Python C API?

Question

Unfortunately there seems to be no PyDateTime_FromString() (equivalent to e.g. PyFloat_FromString()) in the Python C API. Has anybody figured out what would be the ideal workaround if I have to parse a date string into a datetime.datetime type?

score 2 · Accepted Answer · answered May 03 '15 at 08:57

2

If PyDateTime_FromTimestamp does not suffice, you can just call any Python method like strptime directly:

PyObject *datetimeType = (PyObject *) PyDateTimeAPI->DateTimeType;
PyObject *datetime = PyObject_CallMethod(datetimeType, "strptime", "ss",
                                            "11-11-11 11:11:11", //date_string
                                            "%y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S"); //format

But keep in mind, that PyDateTimeAPI->DateTimeType is not part of the documented API, so it could break eventually any time in the future. I've tested this with Python versions 2.7.9 and 3.4.2 only. Instead you should do the equivalent of from datetime import datetime in your C code.

answered May 03 '15 at 08:57

tynn

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Thanks `strptime` worked for me. `PyDateTime_FromTimestamp` does not help me on Windows since it is Unix related. – Thomas F. Jun 22 '15 at 21:05
What does "ss" mean (3rd parameter)? – Andrey Belykh Apr 30 '19 at 19:00
I states that `strptime` takes two string parameters. – tynn May 01 '19 at 06:14

How do I best parse a date string in the Python C API?

1 Answers1