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I am using a function to bring my date consistent in a column, it goes like this

from dateutil.parser import parse
def dateconv1(x):
   c = parse(x)
   return c

so if i will use it as, it works fine 

In[15]:dateconv1("1 / 22 / 2016 15:03")
Out[15]:datetime.datetime(2016, 1, 22, 15, 3)

But when I pass it in variable like this 

a= 1 / 22 / 2016 15:03
In[16]:dateconv1(str(a))

It doesn't work, so how to bring it in quotes or as a string, every help will be appreciating

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4
  • 6
    You're inputing the date as an expression with division rather than as a string Commented Aug 8, 2016 at 9:27
  • That's my question- how to wrap it in like this wtih some python formaule or function, because in my column it is like 1 / 22 / 2016 15:03, and str function seems not working Commented Aug 8, 2016 at 9:32
  • Why not use parse() the way it is instead of writing a function that calls the function only? Commented Aug 8, 2016 at 9:45
  • @evans_murithi- bec Just parse will give me datetime.datetime(2016, 1, 22, 15, 3) something like this, but returning a variable at an end give me an exact time Commented Aug 8, 2016 at 9:48

2 Answers 2

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1

assuming that you are talking about pandas dataset, you can use pandas to_datetime() method:

In [66]: dates = ['1 / 22 / 2016 15:03', 'Jul 22 2016 12:32PM', 'Jul 22 2016 5:40PM',
   ....:          'Jul 22 2016 8:31PM', 'Jul 23 2016 2:01PM', 'Jul 23 2016 7:24PM',
   ....:          'Jul 24 2016 4:30PM', 'Aug 1 2016 4:00PM', 'Aug 1 2016 7:49PM']

In [67]: df = pd.DataFrame({'d':dates})

In [68]: df.dtypes
Out[68]:
d    object
dtype: object

d object - means that the d column is of a string (object) dtype

In [69]: df
Out[69]:
                     d
0  1 / 22 / 2016 15:03
1  Jul 22 2016 12:32PM
2   Jul 22 2016 5:40PM
3   Jul 22 2016 8:31PM
4   Jul 23 2016 2:01PM
5   Jul 23 2016 7:24PM
6   Jul 24 2016 4:30PM
7    Aug 1 2016 4:00PM
8    Aug 1 2016 7:49PM

let's convert it to datetime dtype:

In [70]: df.d = pd.to_datetime(df.d)

In [71]: df
Out[71]:
                    d
0 2016-01-22 15:03:00
1 2016-07-22 12:32:00
2 2016-07-22 17:40:00
3 2016-07-22 20:31:00
4 2016-07-23 14:01:00
5 2016-07-23 19:24:00
6 2016-07-24 16:30:00
7 2016-08-01 16:00:00
8 2016-08-01 19:49:00

check dtype again:

In [72]: df.dtypes
Out[72]:
d    datetime64[ns]
dtype: object
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2 Comments

You dont even realize, You saved my lot of time from Lamdas, try except, loops, parse, datetime and so many, Thanks
@manusharma, you are welcome. :) Please tag your question with a pandas tag next time when you'll ask pandas-related questions - this way you'll attract pandas specialists and will have your questions answered much faster
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What you have is not a valid syntax for defining a Python variable. You should wrap with '' or "" to make it a string:

a = "1 / 22 / 2016 15:03" 
dateconv1(a)
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7 Comments

Thats the question- How to wrap it in ' ' or " ", when str function is not working
@manusharma If you're reading from a file, that should already come in as a string. You can't cast expressions like so with str.
It is not coming as a string, thats the problem, so how to cast or wrap it under ' ' or " " is the question
Its a dateformat variable in my dataset, now its in two different formats 2016, 1, 22, 15, 3 & Jul 22 2016 12:32PM, so with the help of parsing, I am trying to bring them in same format
Please add the dateformat variable as it is in your dataset to your question
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