What libraries can assist you with string to datetime conversions in Python?

2 dateutil Parser

For more flexibility, you might turn to the dateutil library. It extends Python's datetime module by providing a powerful parser that can interpret many different date formats automatically. The parse function from dateutil.parser can often recognize the correct format without explicit instructions, making it very user-friendly. To use it, simply import the parser and pass your string to the parse function like this: from dateutil.parser import parse; parse('April 25, 2021') .

3 Arrow Library

Arrow is a modern library that provides a more Pythonic way of handling dates and times. It offers a wide range of functionality for creating, formatting, manipulating, and converting dates, times, and timestamps. Arrow's .get() method can be used to convert strings to datetime objects, handling a variety of formats with ease. An example usage would be arrow.get('2021-04-25', 'YYYY-MM-DD') , which returns an Arrow object that can be easily converted to a Python datetime object.

4 Maya: Datetimes

Maya is another library designed for simplicity in handling datetime objects. While it is not as widely used as other libraries mentioned, Maya offers easy-to-use functions for parsing and formatting dates. Maya automatically converts strings to datetime objects, attempting to infer the correct format. You can convert a string to a Maya datetime object using maya.parse('2021-04-25').datetime() , which will return a standard Python datetime object.

5 Pendulum Library

Pendulum is a library that not only handles string to datetime conversions but also improves upon the standard datetime library by providing more intuitive methods for date manipulation. It can parse strings into datetime objects just like the datetime library, but with additional parsing capabilities. An example of converting a string with Pendulum would be pendulum.parse('2021-04-25') , which gives you a Pendulum instance that can be converted to a native datetime object if needed.

6 Delorean Library

Delorean is a time travel library designed to make dealing with datetime objects easier. It allows for straightforward string parsing into datetime objects with its parse function. Delorean stands out by handling time zones and daylight saving time changes gracefully. To convert a string into a Delorean object, which can then be converted into a standard datetime object, use delorean.parse('2021-04-25') . This makes handling dates across different locales much simpler.