How Can I Convert Local Time Strings to UTC Using Python?

Converting Local Time Strings to UTC

Converting a local time string to a UTC time string can be a complex task, as timezones and Daylight Saving Time (DST) can introduce ambiguity. This article provides a detailed explanation of how to achieve this conversion using the datetime and pytz modules.

Steps:

1. Parse the local time string:
   Use the datetime.datetime.strptime() function to parse the string as a naive datetime object without timezone information.
2. Check local timezone:
   Determine the local timezone by querying the system or using the pytz.timezone() function.
3. Construct a localized timezone object:
   Create a timezone object from the local timezone using the pytz.timezone() function.
4. Attach local timezone to datetime:
   Call the pytz.localize() function to attach the local timezone to the naive datetime, resulting in a localized datetime object.
5. Convert to UTC:
   Use the astimezone() method on the localized datetime to convert it to UTC.
6. Format UTC time:
   Apply the strftime() method on the UTC datetime to format it as a string in the desired format.

Example:

The following example converts the local time string "2001-2-3 10:11:12" in the "America/Los_Angeles" timezone to its equivalent UTC time:

from datetime import datetime   
import pytz

local = pytz.timezone("America/Los_Angeles")
naive = datetime.strptime("2001-2-3 10:11:12", "%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S")
local_dt = local.localize(naive, is_dst=None)
utc_dt = local_dt.astimezone(pytz.utc)

print(utc_dt.strftime("%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S"))

This will output: "2001-02-03 02:11:12".

The above is the detailed content of How Can I Convert Local Time Strings to UTC Using Python?. For more information, please follow other related articles on the PHP Chinese website!