Python - Error in parsing date

Question

Trying to parse a date to a string and getting this error. Not able to figure out which variable is incorrect.

ValueError: time data '12:00 AM IST on June 01, 2017' does not match format '%I:%M %p %Z on %B %d, %Y'

Here is the code

data = sorted(data['data'], key=lambda x: datetime.datetime.strptime(x['date']['pretty'], '%I:%M %p %Z on %B %d, %Y'), reverse=False)

Have you tried using `strftime` to see if you can recreate your date data with your format code? — Bill, Apr 19 '18 at 15:56
See [this answer](https://stackoverflow.com/a/23704862/1609514) regarding the `%Z` timezone directive. — Bill, Apr 19 '18 at 16:03
Replacing IST with UTC works - so this is definitely something to do with time zones. — jpp, Apr 19 '18 at 16:08
What is `IST` supposed to refer to? Irish Standard Time, India Standard Time, Israel Standard Time, etc? A proper time stamp would use an offset from UTC, not a text label, to designate a timezone. — chepner, Apr 19 '18 at 17:16
@chepner Indian Standard Time. I receive this time data from an external api call which returns a time data in this format. Ill strip the 'IST' part of it as i dont need it further in my program. — Clyde Shelton, Apr 20 '18 at 15:49

score 0 · Accepted Answer · answered Apr 19 '18 at 17:09

0

dateutil might help you

Demo:

from dateutil import parser
s = '12:00 AM IST on June 01, 2017'
print(parser.parse(s))

Output:

2017-06-01 00:00:00

Note: The issue you are having is with converting the zone IST

answered Apr 19 '18 at 17:09

Rakesh

Can you confirm whether or not the timezone information is maintained in the result? – jpp Apr 19 '18 at 17:11
I tried. Not able to get the zone `parser.parse(s).strftime("%Y/ %Z")` == `2017/ ` – Rakesh Apr 19 '18 at 17:14
Then surely `datetime.strptime(x, '%H:%M %p IST on %B %d, %Y')` is a better idea? – jpp Apr 19 '18 at 17:16
@jpp. Yep that's better – Rakesh Apr 19 '18 at 18:20

1 Answers1