How can I account for period (AM/PM) using strftime?

python datetime strptime
Triptych picture Triptych · Nov 18, 2009 · Viewed 113.6k times · Source

Specifically I have code that simplifies to this:

from datetime import datetime
date_string = '2009-11-29 03:17 PM'
format = '%Y-%m-%d %H:%M %p'
my_date = datetime.strptime(date_string, format)

# This prints '2009-11-29 03:17 AM'
print my_date.strftime(format)

What gives? Does Python just ignore the period specifier when parsing dates or am I doing something stupid?

Answer

Ned Batchelder picture Ned Batchelder · Nov 18, 2009

The Python time.strftime docs say:

When used with the strptime() function, the %p directive only affects the output hour field if the %I directive is used to parse the hour.

Sure enough, changing your %H to %I makes it work.

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