How to convert `ctime` to `datetime` in Python?

datetime, python

Solution

You should use `strptime`: this function parses a string representing a time according to a format. The return value is a struct_time.

The format parameter defaults to `%a %b %d %H:%M:%S %Y` which matches the formatting returned by ctime().

So in your case just try the following line, since the default format is the one from ctime:

import datetime
import time

datetime.datetime.strptime(time.ctime(), "%a %b %d %H:%M:%S %Y")

Returns: `datetime.datetime(2012, 4, 21, 4, 22, 00)`

Problem

``` import time t = time.ctime() ``` For me at the moment, `t` is `'Sat Apr 21 11:58:02 2012'`. I have more data like this. My question is: - How to convert `t` to `datetime` in Python? Are there any modules to to it? I tried to make a time `dict` and then convert `t`, but feel like that’s not the best way to do it in Python. Details: - I have a `ctime` list (like `['Sat Apr 21 11:56:48 2012', 'Sat Apr 21 11:56:48 2012']`). - I want to convert the contents to `datetime`, then store that in a `db` with `timestamp`.

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