[GIS] Convert string into date format problems

arcpydatetime

I have a string column within an attribute table that has a string in the format of:

yyyyMMdd HH:mm:ss (i.e 20150417 13:32:05)

I've tried using the convert time field tool within the python IDE in ArcMap and it's not giving me the full date/time.

import arcpy as arc 

arc.ConvertTimeField_management(in_table="TEST_TIME",
                                input_time_field="Date__Time",
                                input_time_format="yyyyMMdd HH:mm:ss;1033;;",
                                output_time_field="Date_Conv",
                                output_time_type="DATE",
                                output_time_format="yyyyMMdd HH:mm:ss")

I've used both "not used" and the format I want in output_time_format

The resulting output field is always MM/dd/yyyy with no time stamp included.

Best Answer

Try this out:

arc.ConvertTimeField_management("TEST_TIME","Date__Time","yyyyMMdd HH:mm:ss","Date_Conv","DATE")

There are two issues with your code:

Since your input local is not the U.S. (01033), the time gets messed up, so just leave that out
When you chose "DATE" for your output time type, you do not get to chose your "locale", since that is handled by your OS or environmental settings

Related Solutions

ArcPy – Converting ArcGIS Date Value to String in mm/dd/yyyy Format

GP cursors read date values as datetime objects, so you can use datetime.strftime() to format it as you like, or datetime.ctime() to format it as the default format (%a %b %d %H:%M:%S %Y).

Here's an example using mm/dd/yyyy:

import arcpy
from datetime import datetime
fc = r"C:\GISData\test.gdb\atlantic_hurricanes_2000"
rows = arcpy.SearchCursor(fc)
for row in rows:
    datetimeVal = row.getValue("Date_Time")
    formattedTime = datetime.strftime(datetimeVal, "%m/%d/%Y")
    print formattedTime

For the meanings of the various time formatting codes see strftime behavior.

[GIS] Converting Date field to string using ArcGIS for Desktop

Arcpy has a built-in function to do this kind of conversion: Convert Time Field. It's mentioned in the first ArcGIS Help link in your question. It can take an ArcGIS date field and convert it to several datatypes, including integer. Here's the syntax:

ConvertTimeField_management (in_table, input_time_field, {input_time_format}, output_time_field, {output_time_type}, {output_time_format})

You'd set the {output_time_type} to a long integer and the {output_time_format} to whatever you'd like, MMddyyyyHHmmss would be an integer representation of the date in the example in your question. Personally I like the yyyyMMddHHmmss format, it lets you sort by date, but if all you need is to join based on timestamps that's not so important.

Best Answer

Related Solutions

ArcPy – Converting ArcGIS Date Value to String in mm/dd/yyyy Format

[GIS] Converting Date field to string using ArcGIS for Desktop

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