all Python 3timefunction

time.strptime()

formatting

Parses a string according to a format and returns a struct_time; a mismatch with the format raises ValueError.

Syntax

time.strptime(string[, format])

It returns a struct_time, not a datetime: for date arithmetic use datetime.strptime — a class method with the same argument order. Missing fields get defaults: no year gives 1900, no date gives 1 January. Without %Z in the format tm_isdst is -1, meaning unknown. Trailing characters after the match also raise ValueError.

Examples

import time
t = time.strptime('30 Nov 2000', '%d %b %Y')
print(t.tm_year, t.tm_mon, t.tm_yday)  # → 2000 11 335
print(time.strptime('12:30', '%H:%M')[:3])  # → (1900, 1, 1)

import time
try:
    time.strptime('2024-13-01', '%Y-%m-%d')
except ValueError as e:
    print(e)  # → time data '2024-13-01' does not match format '%Y-%m-%d'

See also

Common errors

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