readdate#
- readdate(datestr=None, *args, dateformat=None, return_defaults=False, verbose=False)[source]#
Convenience function for loading a date from a string. If dateformat is None, this function tries a list of standard date types. Note: in most cases
sc.date()
should be used instead.By default, a numeric date is treated as a POSIX (Unix) timestamp. This can be changed with the
dateformat
argument, specifically:‘posix’/None: treat as a POSIX timestamp, in seconds from 1970
‘ordinal’/’matplotlib’: treat as an ordinal number of days from 1970 (Matplotlib default)
- Parameters:
datestr (int, float, str or list) – the string containing the date, or the timestamp (in seconds), or a list of either
args (list) – additional dates to convert
dateformat (str or list) – the format for the date, if known; if ‘dmy’ or ‘mdy’, try as day-month-year or month-day-year formats; can also be a list of options
return_defaults (bool) – don’t convert the date, just return the defaults
verbose (bool) – return detailed error messages
- Returns:
a datetime object
- Return type:
dateobj (datetime)
Examples:
dateobj = sc.readdate('2020-03-03') # Standard format, so works dateobj = sc.readdate('04-03-2020', dateformat='dmy') # Date is ambiguous, so need to specify day-month-year order dateobj = sc.readdate(1611661666) # Can read timestamps as well dateobj = sc.readdate(16166, dateformat='ordinal') # Or ordinal numbers of days, as used by Matplotlib dateobjs = sc.readdate(['2020-06', '2020-07'], dateformat='%Y-%m') # Can read custom date formats dateobjs = sc.readdate('20200321', 1611661666) # Can mix and match formats