python strptime format with optional bits

python datetime-format
Digant C Kasundra picture Digant C Kasundra · Jun 2, 2015 · Viewed 16k times · Source

Right now I have:

timestamp = datetime.strptime(date_string, '%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S.%f')

This works great unless I'm converting a string that doesn't have the microseconds. How can I specify that the microseconds are optional (and should be considered 0 if they aren't in the string)?

Answer

Alexander picture Alexander · Jun 2, 2015

You could use a try/except block:

try:
    timestamp = datetime.strptime(date_string, '%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S.%f')
except ValueError:
    timestamp = datetime.strptime(date_string, '%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S')

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