Datetime format issue with z

[sks3286]

I'm trying to parse a string as a datetime object and running into issues parsing the timezone offset part.

This is my code:

from datetime import datetime
upd_time_str = 'as on : 07 April 2020, 09:00 GMT+5:30'
upd_time_str = upd_time_str[upd_time_str.find(':')+2:]
print(upd_time_str)
upd_time = datetime.strptime(upd_time_str,'%d %B %Y, %H:%M GMT%z')
print(upd_time)

And here's the output:

07 April 2020, 09:00 GMT+5:30
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
ValueError                                Traceback (most recent call last)
 in 
      3 upd_time_str = upd_time_str[upd_time_str.find(':')+2:]
      4 print(upd_time_str)
----> 5 upd_time = datetime.strptime(upd_time_str,'%d %B %Y, %H:%M GMT%z')
      6 print(upd_time)

~\AppData\Local\Programs\Python\Python37\lib\_strptime.py in _strptime_datetime(cls, data_string, format)
    575     """Return a class cls instance based on the input string and the
    576     format string."""
--> 577     tt, fraction, gmtoff_fraction = _strptime(data_string, format)
    578     tzname, gmtoff = tt[-2:]
    579     args = tt[:6] + (fraction,)

~\AppData\Local\Programs\Python\Python37\lib\_strptime.py in _strptime(data_string, format)
    357     if not found:
    358         raise ValueError("time data %r does not match format %r" %
--> 359                          (data_string, format))
    360     if len(data_string) != found.end():
    361         raise ValueError("unconverted data remains: %s" %

ValueError: time data '07 April 2020, 09:00 GMT+5:30' does not match format '%d %B %Y, %H:%M GMT%z'

EDIT: Interestingly, if I remove the part 'GMT+5:30' (and also remove the relevant format specifier), the code works perfectly fine, so it's the offset portion that seems to be messing things up. FYI I'm on Python 3.7.6 so the ':' in the offset should be parsed properly.

[Larz60+]

Perhaps this will help: https://pymotw.com/3/datetime/

[sks3286]

Thanks, I had a look at that post. The issue I am facing is that %z doesn't seem to be recognised. The syntax of the command is ok since removing the "GMT+..." part allows the code to run

---

Got it! Python is expecting the timezone offset in HH:MM. The string has it as h:MM so the missing 0 padding is throwing it off. Added the 0 and problem solved