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 (date)

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