How to Convert Timestamps with Timezone Offsets to Python datetime Objects?

Converting Timestamps with Offset to Datetime Objects Using strptime

Converting timestamps from the format "YYYY-MM-DDTHH:MM:SS-hh:mm" to datetime objects in Python using the strptime method can be challenging due to the time offset information.

In the example provided, strptime fails to parse the timestamp with the offset "-07:00" using the "%Y-%m-%dT%H:%M:%S-%z" format. This is because strptime does not natively support the '%z' directive for timezones in Python 2.

Workaround Options:

1. Ignore the Timezone:

If the timezone information is not crucial, you can ignore it by parsing the string up to the offset:

time_str = "2012-07-24T23:14:29-07:00"
time_obj = datetime.datetime.strptime(time_str[:19], '%Y-%m-%dT%H:%M:%S')

2. Use the dateutil Module:

Alternatively, the dateutil module provides a more robust parsing function that supports timezones:

from dateutil.parser import parse
time_obj = parse(time_str)

Python 3 Support:

In Python 3.2 and later, there is improved support for timezone handling. Removing the last ":" from the offset and replacing "-" with " ":

time_str = "2012-07-24T23:14:29-07:00"
time_obj = datetime.datetime.strptime(''.join(time_str.rsplit(':', 1)), '%Y-%m-%dT%H:%M:%S%z')

This will correctly parse the timestamp and create a datetime object with the specified timezone offset.

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